(Credits: Far Out / YouTube Still / Alamy)
Fri 26 September 2025 21:45, UK
If you were a fan of the show Shameless during its original run, you probably had no idea that you were watching the rise of a future megastar. This was where a young Jeremy Allen White got his big break, playing a young troublemaker Lip Gallagher.
After a few years in the wilderness, White reemerged as the star of FX’s prestige TV monolith The Bear. Now, he’s a bona fide sensation, with unlimited potential. It almost makes up for him appearing in Movie 43…almost.
In 2025, White took on one of his most high-profile roles to date by starring in Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere. Tasked with bringing to life one of the most iconic musicians in American history, White does a fantastic job playing ‘The Boss’, if early reviews are to be believed. The movie debuted to strong reactions at the Telluride Film Festival, with many expecting its lead actor’s name to be in the headlines when awards season rolls around.
Given that he’s playing Springsteen, White had to do a lot of research before he could step into the shoes of the New Jersey native. He’s always been a fan of his music, but it’s something else entire to perform it in character. The Los Angeles Times decided to test the star’s knowledge by asking him for his favourite Springsteen tune, and his answer did not disappoint.
“Probably ‘My Father’s House’. It seemed like a warning for me,” he returned, “There’s regret in it. What I heard is a song about a young man not wanting to regret that he didn’t reach out for his father, who he had a love and connection with earlier. There was an immediacy to it, which you then see with Bruce and his father in the film.”
Taken from Springsteen’s 1982 album Nebraska, which forms the central focus of Deliver Me from Nowhere, ‘My Father’s House’ is a ballad about a boy estranged from his dad after a confrontation, where years later, he tries to reconcile things only to find that a stranger now lives in his old house. The track was never released as a single and rarely gets played live during the singer’s shows, who also considers it among his proudest moments, but it remains popular among the diehards.
Springsteen wrote a number of songs about his father stemming from their fractured relationship. Douglas ‘Dutch’ Springsteen was a bus driver and odd jobs man who suffered severe mental health problems that were worsened by alcoholism. A lot of Bruce’s emphasis on working-class issues in his music comes from trying to understand his father, who never saw the point in his son’s musical ambitions.
Deliver Me from Nowhere is yet to see the general public, so the jury’s still out on the project as a whole. At least it seems like its star has done his research. Imagine if White had called something like ‘Born in the USA’ his favourite? There’d have been riots in the streets.
Related Topics