Jeremy Allen White says Bruce Springsteen texts ‘like a boss’ ahead of biopic portrayal

‘The Bear’ star is set to play the ‘Dancing in the Dark’ singer in a new film about his life

Jeremy Allen White has revealed he has been texting and emailing Bruce Springsteen.

The Bear star, 33, will play the “Born in the USA” singer in the forthcoming biopic Deliver Me From Nowhere, which will follow the billion musician’s life and career as he recorded his sixth studio album Nebraska in 1982, based on Warren Zanes’ 2023 nonfiction biography, Deliver Me from Nowhere: The Making of Bruce Springsteen’s Nebraska.

White, who will sing tracks from the Nebraska album in the forthcoming film, said he had taken time to contact the legendary musician in preparation for his performance.

Speaking to Variety, the Shameless actor said Springsteen messages “like a boss”, in reference to his long-term nickname, which stemmed from the singer handing out people’s pay after shows.

White did not detail his conversations with the singer but revealed they had “texted and emailed” ahead of Springsteen’s Wembley show in London on Saturday night (27 July) where he hoped they could meet in person.

Springsteen and The Bear star’s communications have been steadily growing since White was cast in Deliver Me From Nowhere. Back in June, he told Variety they had only spoken “ through some other people”, adding “but I hope this still all comes together”.

He said of the project: “We’ve still got a few things, we’ve got some timing stuff to work out, and I’m trying to have a bit of my own process with it before meeting the man, too.”

Bruce Springsteen performing in July (Magnus Lejhall/TT/Shutterstock)

Back in 2019, Sprinsteen, who has not publicly addressed White’s casting, previously expressed hesitancy over there being a film about his life.

“It’s kind of something I’ve just held off on because so few of them are successful,” he told IndieWire. “Finding someone to play yourself is really weird.”

It comes after Springsteen reportedly joined an exclusive list of music artists who, as of 2024, are worth more than a billion dollars including Jay-Z ($2.5bn), Rihanna ($1.4bn) and Taylor Swift ($1.1bn), earlier this month.

In 2021, the rocker sold his music catalogue to Sony for an estimated $500-$550m. The sale made history as the largest transaction ever struck for a single artist’s body of work, Variety reported.

Jeremy Allen White in ‘The Bear’ (AP)

Reflecting on his songwriting process in a 2009 interview with The Guardian, Springsteen recalled: “All the music I loved as a child, people thought it was junk. People were unaware of the subtext in so many of those records but if you were a kid you were just completely tuned in, even though you didn’t always say – you wouldn’t dare say it was beautiful.

“And those records, some of them sustained their beauty. If you listen to the great Beatle records, the earliest ones where the lyrics are incredibly simple. Why are they still beautiful? Well, they’re beautifully sung, beautifully played, and the mathematics in them is elegant.”