The first trailer for Deliver Me From Nowhere shows a good look at Jeremy Allen White in the lead role. The film will be a biopic of Bruce Springsteen that will cover his time working on his famous album Nebraska, which was conceived while he was recording “Born to Run” with the E Street band. It is also based on the book of the same name by Warren Zanes. The movie is written and directed by Scott Cooper, and, in addition to White, features a supporting cast including Stephen Graham, Marc Maron, Jeremy Strong, and Gaby Hoffman.
While music biopics are a trend, playing a music icon is a particularly difficult task. Some actors will opt to do their own singing, such as Timothée Chalamet in the Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown. Others will act in the roles without singing the part themselves, such as Rami Malek in Bohemian Rhapsody, who did not take on the powerhouse vocals of Freddie Mercury. Springsteen is a powerful and distinctive vocalist who will be hard to mimic, and one key question that many audiences will have is whether White will do his own singing.
Yes, Jeremy Allen White Sings & Plays Guitar In Deliver Me From Nowhere
This Detail Has Been Confirmed In Interviews
White is opting to do his own singing for Deliver Me From Nowhere. This has been advertised in the lead up to the biopic, and has been known to have the approval of The Boss himself. As per Variety, Springsteen said earlier this year that White “sings very well.” While speaking with ScreenRant in a more recent interview, co-star Hoffman noted that Springsteen “couldn’t believe that what he was hearing wasn’t his own voice” when he heard White play the role. These were all very clear indicators that White did his own singing.
Even before Springsteen reacted to White’s performance, it was confirmed that the actor would also play guitar in the film. This was confirmed by Variety in June 2024. Exhibiting both musical skills is a notable challenge for the actor, who has never had a singing-heavy role in a movie before. Nonetheless, White and his team were determined that the actor would authentically play and sing for the film. This shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise, given that the actor also previously did some training for The Bear, which involved working at a Michellin restaurant.
As the trailer addresses in some of its dialogue, Nebraska was a notable departure from Springsteen’s typical style up until that point.
Snippets of White’s playing and singing are witnessed in the Deliver Me From Nowhere trailer. He is first seen playing guitar and humming the demo for the song “Starkweather,” which would later become Nebraska‘s тιтular song. Later in the trailer, he is heard singing a fuller version of “Nebraska,” which becomes the backing track for the majority of the trailer. He is also seen playing electric guitar later in the trailer, and ending by singing a section of “Born to Run.”
How Jeremy Allen White’s Singing Voice Compares To Bruce Springsteen
He Does A Fantastic Job
As the trailer addresses in some of its dialogue, Nebraska was a notable departure from Springsteen’s typical style up until that point. Straying away from the rousing notes of “Born in the U.S.A.” or “Born to Run,” he stripped things down to a more low-key acoustic for this 1982 album. As such, White has the challenge of not only imitating Springsteen, but impersonating him in a style that is itself far apart from some of the singer’s usual sound. He will have to master this style while also, as the trailer shows, singing some hit Springsteen works.
White sounds absolutely impeccable singing “Nebraska.” Despite the actor playing guitar and beginning to hum the tune, it seemed for a split second that Deliver Me From Nowhere had transitioned to playing an audio clip of Springsteen himself singing the song. White just sounds that similar. He masters the inflections, phrasings, and even the put-on accent that Springsteen has in the original song. This kind of vocal tone is fairly consistent throughout the duration of the Nebraska album, so White’s tease is exciting.
His version of “Born to Run” sounds slightly less authentic. He does include the vocal rasp that so characterizes Springsteen’s work, but he perhaps lays it on a little too thick. This is a distinctive element of much of Springsteen’s vocal work, and there are raspier live versions like the one portrayed in the Deliver Me From Nowhere trailer, so it makes sense why White would lean into this characteristic. Hopefully, his work on “Born to Run” as a whole will be able to match the dynamic quality he has already exhibited in “Nebraska.”
Deliver Me From Nowhere is set for release on October 24, 2025.
