Bruce Springsteen makes surprise appearance on New Jersey set of his biopic starring Jeremy Allen White
Production on the Bruce Springsteen biopic Deliver Me From Nowhere kicked off this week in the Garden State.
And just four days into the shoot, the Boss himself made a surprise appearance to the set in Rockaway, New Jersey, where he was greeted by writer and director Scott Cooper.
The film is based on the book Deliver Me From Nowhere: The Making Of Bruce Springsteen’s Nebraska (1982), which was written by Warren Zanes, who joined Cooper in welcoming the legendary rocker on set.
Springsteen, 75, looked like a man much younger than his years in beige jeans with a matching jacket and brown chukka boots.
Stepping up the cool factor, the New Jersey icon sported cool dark sunglasses, while his salt-and-pepper hair was styled short.
It didn’t take long before Springsteen was surrounded by a number of people, including British actor Stephen Graham, who plays Douglas Springsteen, Bruce’s father with whom he had a complicated relationship.
It appeared Cooper was shooting a scene from Springsteen’s childhood, considering the classic American cars parked on the streets that date back to the 1950s, when the singer–songwriter was just a kid.
The film also stars Johnny Cannizzaro as E Street Band member Steven Van Zandt, while Jeremy Strong portrays Jon Landau, Springsteen’s manager and record producer.
The cast also features Paul Walter Hauser, Odessa Young and Harrison Gilbertson, among many others.
The film will follow Springsteen on his journey to make his sixth studio album, Nebraska, which was a departure from his previous work by being mostly stripped down.
He had recorded the songs solo as demos on a tiny four-track recorder with the intention of re-recording them with the E Street Band in the studio, but ultimately scrapped the full-band recordings and decided to release the solo demos as they were.
His previous five studio albums had been an exercise in exuded energy, youth, optimism and joy while telling stories of the common man, for the most part.
But with Nebraska, the songs sounded more solemn and thoughtful, and they deal with ordinary, down-on-their-luck blue-collar characters who face challenges or turning points in their lives.
Nebraska met with commercial success, reaching number three in both the US and UK, but its stark departure from earlier albums resulted in slower sales and less praise from critics initially.
Springsteen chose not to tour in support of the album, making it his first major release that was not supported by a big tour.
It would take decades before Nebraska attracted widespread acclaim, but over the years it has become one of the most highly regarded albums of Springsteen’s career, which boasts 21 solo and full-band albums.
At the time of the recording of Nebraska, it was just a couple of years before he brought in the E Street Band for what would became the phenomenon that is Born In The USA (1984).
