{"id":258413,"date":"2025-10-29T09:29:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-29T09:29:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/258413\/"},"modified":"2025-10-29T09:29:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-29T09:29:10","slug":"springsteen-deliver-me-from-nowhere-how-jeremy-allen-white-became-bruce-springsteen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/258413\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere\u2019: How Jeremy Allen White became Bruce Springsteen"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n It is fall 1981 and a 31-year-old Bruce Springsteen has just wrapped a wildly successful tour for his latest album, \u201cThe River.\u201d But instead of returning to the studio to produce new songs \u2014 as was the preference of his label Columbia Records \u2014 the musician retreated to a quiet house in Colts Neck, New Jersey, near where he grew up, to rest and recover.\n <\/p>\n

\n There, intentionally isolated, but unintentionally reliving childhood trauma and subsequent depression, Springsteen ended up self-recording 10 songs that would form his seminal low-fi album \u201cNebraska.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n This definitive period in the rock star\u2019s life is the background to \u201cSpringsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere,\u201d a new movie directed by filmmaker Scott Cooper, which stars \u201cThe Bear\u2019s\u201d Jeremy Allen White as a convincing Springsteen and Jeremy Strong, of \u201cSuccession\u201d fame, portraying his longtime manager and friend Jon Landau.\n <\/p>\n

\"Jeremy<\/p>\n

\n The stylish biopic charts the tumultuous times of Springsteen\u2019s early life and their influence on his music. It doesn\u2019t, however, shy away from examining the singer\u2019s often painful oscillation between indefatigable global rock god and fragile human, and his search for authenticity and belonging when separated from his working class roots.\n <\/p>\n

\n It\u2019s a dichotomy also conveyed through Springsteen\u2019s clothing \u2014 his eminently familiar blue collar \u2018Americana\u2019 uniform of Levi\u2019s jeans, leather jackets with the collar popped, plaid flannels, white tanks and boots, which the now 76-year-old can still be seen in today.\n <\/p>\n

\n In a video interview with CNN, the movie\u2019s costume director Kasia Walicka Maimone (whose CV includes \u201cThe Gilded Age,\u201d \u201cMoonrise Kingdom,\u201d and \u201cCapote\u201d) said that she and her team did a lot of prep before their first meeting with Springsteen, who was involved in the production.\n <\/p>\n

\"Springsteen's<\/p>\n

\n \u201cBruce was pretty involved and it was amazing to spend time with him because, of course, he\u2019s a legend. Many of us on the movie were already big fans,\u201d she said. \u201cThe way he can communicate emotion and tell stories that resonate is, to me, like religion. But there was definitely a moment to put the awe aside and say, \u2018OK, now we have to become collaborators\u2019.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n But, said Maimone, Springsteen eminently respected the creative process. \u201cWhat became clear even in the first conversation I had with Bruce was that, even though he was very well photographed at that specific time (1981-1982), there were pieces he loved more than others \u2014 his everyday wear was different to items that were used for photoshoots or concerts. We were continuously breaking through the levels of intimacy and discovering those super private moments and pieces that were significant, that meant a lot to him\u2026 Those are what we tried to reflect in the movie, so Bruce\u2019s input was key.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Indeed, some of the garments White wears in the film are borrowed from Springsteen\u2019s actual wardrobe, including a Triumph Motorcycles T-shirt and an original blue and white plaid shirt from the early 1980s that the star had often worn. \u201cThat was one of Bruce\u2019s beloved pieces, and it was very delicate,\u201d Maimone said. \u201cWe knew that it might shred during filming, not least because Jeremy Allen White and Bruce Springsteen are not the same size. But we all wanted so much to use it in an emotional scene with Bruce and his father, and Bruce felt that if the piece were to shred, that particular scene would be the most beautiful moment for it to go.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Very few rock stars\u2019 wardrobes stand the test of time. Even fewer keep that up over a 50-year career. Yet 45 years on from \u201cNebraska,\u201d the one they call \u201cThe Boss\u201d remains one of the world\u2019s greatest music icons with an almost unchanged personal style, having sold more than 140 million records, winning 20 Grammy awards and earning a billion-dollar fortune along the way.\n <\/p>\n

\n Part of Springsteen\u2019s visual legend comes from the fact that everything he wears \u2014 the denim, the leather jackets, the flannel shirts \u2014 is easily accessible to his fans. \u201cAround that time (the early 1980s), Bruce Springsteen was universally appealing. Men wanted to be him and women wanted to date him,\u201d said Patricia Mears, deputy director of The Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York, in a phone call. \u201cHe\u2019s not consciously stylish, but he is authentically working class, which is where the bulk of his audience is from too. His clothing choices embody the image of a man who does \u2018a proper day\u2019s work,\u2019 which is an idea that would appeal to his fanbase.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\"Bruce<\/p>\n

Bruce Springteen, the unassuming style icon<\/p>\n

\n But it\u2019s a look also tied up in personal politics and patriotism \u2014 take, for instance, the worn Levis, faded baseball cap and overall red, white and blue theme on the cover of 1984\u2019s \u201cBorn In The USA\u201d album. Springsteen has also stayed true to his left-leaning roots despite global fame. \u201cHe supports workers, never comes across as being elitist and threads a very narrow channel of managing to still appeal to his working class base \u2014 many of whom have probably supported Donald Trump \u2014 without doing the same,\u201d added Mears.\n <\/p>\n

\n Nancy Deihl, a fashion historian and chair of New York University\u2019s art department, who grew up in New Jersey, said Springsteen and his style was known to her and her friends before he was known to the rest of the world. \u201cI recall a multi-generational conversation held over a holiday dinner,\u201d Deihl explained in a phone call. \u201cThe parents all said Bruce Springsteen\u2019s clothes made him look so grubby. They were used to polished performers like Frank Sinatra or Tom Jones. They read his working class style \u2014 the bandanas, the jeans \u2014 as alternative, as his \u2018having not tried hard enough\u2019.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n However, Deihl sees Springsteen\u2019s workwear style as \u201ca signifier of socio-economics; basic, usable items in fabrics such as denim and flannel,\u201d she explained. \u201cThese associations not only echo the messaging of his music, they don\u2019t date.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\"Jeremy<\/p>\n

\n Springsteen was also a harbinger of the rise of workwear within fashion more broadly, said Mears. \u201cToday, workwear is commonly repurposed as fashion \u2014 think Carhartt and Dickies \u2014 and performative hipsters channel that authenticity with, sometimes, limited success. But the way Springsteen did it is not hackneyed. His connection to American roots and American roots music authenticated him to dress in this way.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n To create a believable image in the film, it was important for Maimone to channel how Springsteen wears clothes as much as source the correct garments themselves. \u201cBruce has fantastic style naturally, but he also gives clothes charisma,\u201d she said. \u201cHe wore utilitarian workwear pieces in a very specific way \u2014 the super tight, high-waisted jeans, Cuban-heeled boots, leather jackets that fit exactly\u2026 Bruce\u2019s proportions are perfectly balanced and he wears pieces with a level of ease and confidence. The same item on somebody else might look very different. My job was to capture that ease and confidence.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\"Costume<\/p>\n

\n Maimone said she and the costuming team spent a long time with White when he was \u201cabsorbing\u201d Springsteen, referencing old photographs, period vintage pieces they\u2019d spent months sourcing and the insights from Springsteen himself.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cJeremy was becoming, you know, the channeler of Bruce Springsteen\u2019s spirit,\u201d said Maimone. \u201cHe did it so beautifully and he became him in the most phenomenal way. And it translated to the way he wore those pieces. We sometimes liken a movie\u2019s clothing to another \u2018skin,\u2019 another level of the character. And Jeremy \u2018absorbed\u2019 the skin of Bruce Springsteen.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n The man himself agrees. \u201cJeremy didn\u2019t try to do any sort of impression. He simply inhabited my inner life,\u201d said Springsteen in the movie\u2019s notes. \u201cThe camera picked up on those complexities and that was essential in making the character completely believable. That\u2019s where he\u2019s performing his magic from, and he just did a beautiful job of it.\u201d\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It is fall 1981 and a 31-year-old Bruce Springsteen has just wrapped a wildly successful tour for his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":258414,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[88,216],"class_list":{"0":"post-258413","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-music"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258413","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=258413"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258413\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/258414"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=258413"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=258413"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=258413"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}