PHILADELPHIA — After months of anticipation, we’re finally seeing actor Jeremy Allen White’s transformation into Bruce Springsteen for the biopic “Deliver Me From Nowhere” — swapping his piercing blue eyes for brown contact lenses.
The movie, based on the Warren Zanes book about the making of Springsteen’s legendary solo album “Nebraska,” is currently filming in New Jersey and New York. White, who stars in the Emmy-winning dramedy “The Bear,” brings his signature tortured acting to this depressive period of Springsteen’s life, when the rock legend wrote and recorded the album while living alone in Colts Neck, N.J., in the 1970s.
On set, White sported a red plaid button-down shirt and classic leather jacket, with some photos showing him in a gray beret. This week the Brooklyn-based actor has been seen visiting a bookstore and coffee shop in Hoboken, and filming at a branch of the Montclair Public Library. Unsurprisingly, passionate Springsteen fans have already been questioning whether White looks convincing enough as young Springsteen. An user on X believed “he looks more like Brian Johnson from AC/DC than Bruce Springsteen.”
Springsteen himself is involved “a little” in the film, as is his manager Jon Landau, who will be played by “Succession” star Jeremy Strong. In a recent interview, the Boss called the cast “lovely” and praised White: “This is not easy to do because you can’t do an imitation, you have to do a personal interpretation … It’s difficult but he is a great actor and sings pretty good.”