Jeremy Allen White has revealed the incredibly generous gift – and gracious show of support – that he received from Bruce Springsteen while he was getting into the role of the Boss for his now-released biopic.
For Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere, White was tasked with portraying Springsteen on the big screen – a rather daunting task, especially when one remembers The Bear star had never picked up a guitar before he got the role.
However, he had plenty of help getting to grips with the instrument. Not only did White get guitar lessons from session ace J. D. Simo, he was also given an acoustic guitar by Springsteen himself. It wasn’t just any ol’ guitar, either – it was a vintage Gibson acoustic resembling Springsteen’s own.
“I got a text from someone saying, ‘Bruce would like to send you something,’” White remembers in a promo clip for the film. “They said, ‘You have to be there to receive it.’ It was a 1955 Gibson J-200.”
“It was as close as I could get to the original guitar that I played,” Springsteen says of the gift. “I said, ‘This is just some good voodoo for the film.’”
It was good voodoo indeed, as White was able to get to grips with the instrument ahead of the movie.
“That's the guitar I learned to play,” he asserts. “I think it's the nicest guitar anybody's ever learned to play the guitar on. I have it in a very special spot in my home.”
In the lead-up to the release of Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere – which charts the making of Springsteen’ seminal acoustic record, Nebraska – White has spoken at length about the responsibility he felt in stepping into the role.
To prepare for the job, he took guitars to the set of The Bear to practice in his spare time. Understandable, really, given he called the experience “the most frightened I’ve been in my work life”.
“Picking up a guitar for the first time when you've never held one before, and knowing in six months you have to be playing it, that was humbling,” he said recently.
