When it comes to his forthcoming musical biopic, the Bruce Springsteen understood that he would have to be dancing in the dark, allowing his portrayer Jeremy Allen White the necessary slack to create a character of Springsteen — without too much interference from the actual music legend.
“I wanted the actors to feel completely free, and I didn’t want to get in the way, and so I would just stay at home,” Springsteen said to Rolling Stone. “If Scott Cooper, the director, wanted or needed me there for something, I would try to make it. But I was on tour in Canada for the whole first month or so of the filming, and so I was really out on the road quite a bit and working at that time.”
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Springsteen did pop in sometimes, however, and he said that White was “very, very tolerant” of him on those occasions. “I said to him, ‘Look, anytime I’m in the way, just give me the look and I’m on my way home,’” Springsteen said. “So the days that I got out there, he was wonderfully tolerant with me being there. And it was just fun. It was enjoyable.”
Springsteen also said that there was “unusualness” for him in the biopic experience, since “the movie involves, in some ways, some of the most painful days of my life.” The “Born to Run” singer said that, when a particularly emotional scene was on the schedule, he would make sure he was away from the set.
Much like James Mangold’s portrait of Bob Dylan, last year’s “A Complete Unknown,” Scott Cooper’s “Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere” will focus on one portion of Springsteen’s life, as Springsteen said on Variety’s Award Circuit podcast in April.
“It’s an interesting concept, because it’s only a couple of years out of my life. It’s ’81, ’82, and centered around the creation of that particular record [‘Nebraska’] while I was simultaneously recording ‘Born in the USA’ and also going through some personal difficulties that I’ve been living with my whole life. But it’s fantastic,” he said.
Earlier this year on SirusXM’s E Street Radio, Springsteen praised White’s performance, noting that “he sings very well.” “He’s got an interpretation of me that I think the fans will deeply recognize, so he’s done a great job,” Springsteen added.
“Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere” hits theaters October 24.
