Jeremy Allen White shocked by Bruce Springsteen's on-set presence
Jeremy Allen White was stunned to realise Bruce Springsteen would be a regular fixture on the set of Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere.
Jeremy Allen White was horrified to realise Bruce Springsteen would be a regular fixture on the set of Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere.
The 34-year-old actor plays the music icon in the biographical musical drama film, and not only did he feel the pressure of living up to fans' expectations of The Boss, he was even more intimidated when he realised the Born to Run hitmaker - who served as a producer on the movie - would be seeing his portrayal up close.
Speaking during The Hollywood Reporter's Actors Roundtable, The Smashing Machine star Dwayne Johnson asked: "Jeremy, did you feel — because I felt this on The Smashing Machine — added pressure inhabiting the skin of one of the greatest ever?"
And Jeremy replied: "For sure. One of the greatest ever, and also, people have their own understanding of Bruce Springsteen, and I felt like, 'I don’t want to interrupt that understanding.'
"It’s so pure and powerful, and he’s adored, and I just didn’t want to mess with it....
"In the beginning, I spent a lot of time with Bruce — he was very gracious and generous with his time. But then he was on set almost every day, which was something that we did not speak about prior. And I was just like, 'Oh, nooo.' "
Fellow actors Jacob Elordi and Mark Hamill were sympathetic.
Jacob said: "I saw pictures of that and felt for you."
Mark added: "I get vicarious flop sweat just thinking about it."
Despite being the top choice of both Bruce and director Scott Cooper, the Bear actor admitted he wasn't convinced he was the right person for the biopic but ultimately decided to take a "leap of faith".
He said: "There are some actors who feel like they can do anything, that they can show up and figure it out. I wanted to make sure I was the right guy.
"The odds seemed stacked against me.
"I mean, Scott wanted me to do all the singing in it, but I’d never sung before. He wanted me to play the guitar for it, but I’d never played the guitar before. And we had just six months to prepare. I was like, 'I don’t know if that can be done.'
"So I took a couple of days. But then it was that thing of, 'Am I going to shy away from this challenge or am I going to jump and see what happens?'
"It was a leap of faith."
