The reviews are in, and Jeremy Allen White delivers as Bruce Springsteen in the rock biopic, “Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere.”
And while that’s actually the “The Bear” Emmy winner playing the guitar and singing the songs off the music legend’s stripped-down 1982 album, “Nebraska,” White admitted to ABC News’ Linsey Davis that he didn’t actually learn how to play the guitar to embody Springsteen.
“It’s so funny, when I spoke to J.D., my guitar teacher, I said, ‘Hey, I’m really excited to learn how to play the guitar,’ and he said, ‘You’re not going to learn how to play the guitar. You’re going to learn how to play these Bruce songs,’” White recalled in an “All Access” clip shared exclusively with TheWrap above. “He was like, ‘We don’t have enough time to teach you how to play the guitar.’”
White shared that his limited musical ability initially made him nervous to star in “Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere.” He recalled an early conversation with filmmaker Scott Cooper about his concerns. “‘I don’t sing, I don’t play the guitar. Are you sure you don’t want to cast somebody that already knows how to do these things?’” he recalled asking the director of “Crazy Heart” and “Out of the Furnace.” “He had confidence and he said, ‘We’ve got about seven months, I think you can learn,’ and I got to work. And I had really wonderful people to help.”
While White remembered his time with instrumental coach J.D. Simo as essential to his final performance, he told Davis that he’ll pick up a guitar today and still be limited in what he can do with it.
“It’s interesting, I pick up the guitar every once in awhile, and I mess around, but I only know so many chords,” he said. “I only know the chords necessary for really the album of ‘Nebraska,’ which is only four or five chords.”
“Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere” stars White as Springsteen during the period of his life that he created his iconic sixth studio album, “Nebraska.” Springsteen recorded these songs in his bedroom in Colts Neck, New Jersey, with a 4-track recorder, creating a stripped-down folk album focused on blue-collar storytelling. “Nebraska” featured songs like “Atlantic City” and “Highway Patrolman.”
Cooper wrote and directed “Deliver Me From Nowhere,” based on Warren Zanes’ book of the same name. Jeremy Strong co-stars as Springsteen’s manager, Jon Landau, while Odessa Young plays Bruce’s romantic interest, Faye. Other cast members include Paul Walter Hauser, Stephen Graham, Gaby Hoffmann, Marc Maron and David Krumholtz.
“All Access” airs Mondays on ABC News Live “Prime” with Linsey Davis. Tune in tonight at 8 p.m. ET on ABC News Live, Disney+ Hulu and more to see the full interview with White.
“Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere” hits theaters Friday.
