The “really embarrassing” album Jeremy Allen White adores: “It has some really great music”
You’re in for a very good end to October if you’re a fan of either Bruce Springsteen or Jeremy Allen White, and if you’re a fan of both, then you’re going to feel like Christmas has arrived two months early.
That’s because the end of the month sees the release of Deliver Me from Nowhere, the Springsteen biopic starring White that tracks the New Jersey native’s recording of Nebraska, the astonishing album from 1982 that saw him retreat to the safety of a four-track recorder, an acoustic guitar and a harmonica, much to the horror of record company execs who were expecting a show-stopping, radio-friendly unit seller.
There’s already Oscar buzz about the movie, especially about White’s performance, which, even judging from the trailer, is an uncanny reconstruction of Springsteen’s voice, plus there are welcome supporting roles from the likes of Succession’s Jeremy Strong – who is fantastic in The Apprentice if you haven’t seen it – and Black Bird’s Paul Walter Hauser.
Scouse Adolescence legend Stephen Graham is also on board as Bruce’s father, and Springsteen made several visits to the set during production to give his two pence worth, so it should be pretty authentic if nothing else.
White certainly immersed himself in the role in order to portray Springsteen in as convincing a manner as possible, although he had never even picked up a guitar before filming began. He was able to use one of Springsteen’s own guitars, though, which must have helped to some degree. White did say that he has been a lifelong fan of The Boss’ music, however, that taste is not reflected in his first CD purchase as a kid.
He told InStyle that the first album he ever owned was the music from a 2001 street dance movie, revealing, “It was probably … Could it have been? I feel like I got the Save the Last Dance soundtrack on CD, which has some great, great music in it, but it’s a really embarrassing first CD, I guess.”
That movie, starring Kerry Washington and Julia Stiles, was a big hit on release, although it attracted a fair amount of criticism due to the standard of the dancing on display, and to say it hasn’t aged very well is a vast understatement. Nevertheless, White’s favourite soundtrack was indeed a global success, going multi-platinum and featuring all kinds of turn-of-the-century bangers like ‘Breathe and Stop’ by Q-Tip and ‘Murder She Wrote’ by Chaka Demus and Pliers.
After the Springsteen movie we’ll be seeing a lot more of White over the next year or so; aside from his hit Hulu show The Bear, he’ll be appearing again with Strong in Aaron Sorkin’s follow-up to The Social Network, titled The Social Reckoning, and he’s also signed up to be in the Jon Favreau-directed Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu as the duo hit the big screen for the first time in a film that will be in cinemas at the end of May 2026. As if that weren’t enough, he’s teaming up with Austin Butler for a movie called Enemies about a hitman who discovers he’s more like the detective investigating his activities than he imagined.
