Jeremy Allen White Fell Down ‘Rabbit Hole’ of YouTube Footage to Nail Bruce Springsteen’s Voice
Jeremy Allen White’s YouTube watch history is full of Bruce Springsteen videos. The 33-year-old actor has been gathering intel on the music legend in preparation for his portrayal of the Boss in the upcoming biopic Deliver Me From Nowhere. Some have come firsthand from the musician himself, but White is covering all of his bases when it comes to research for the role.
“There’s just so much footage,” White recently told GQ. “It’s really great to go down a YouTube rabbit hole and find him at all these different periods in his life and be able to listen to his speaking voice as well as his singing voice. That’s kind of been the deal, just listening to him a lot and watching him a lot. It’s been really fun preparing.”
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Getting the voice right is essential to the actor nailing one of the film’s most ambitious goals: having White sing Springsteen’s classics himself. “I’m really lucky that there’s sort of a team of folks now in place to help young actors portray rock stars,” he added. “I’ve got a really talented group of people helping me train vocally, musically, to get ready for this thing.”
Deliver Me From Nowhere will be based on Warren Zanes’ 2023 book of the same name. Springsteen and his manager, Jon Landau, will be involved in the making of the film, which centers on the making of Springsteen’s classic 1982 album, Nebraska. Scott Cooper is attached as both writer and director.
White has been texting back and forth with the musician who he says “is really supportive of the film,” adding: “I’ve had some access to him and he’s just the greatest guy.”
They’ve also found some common ground — not on set or in the studio, but in their closets. “Bruce Springsteen is — I mean this in the very best way — he’s a guy. He’s a jeans and T-shirt kind of guy,” said White, who leaned into some denim looks for his latest Calvin Klein campaign. “It was exciting to know going into this thing that we had at least that in common.”
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