Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere‘s director Scott Cooper speaks about how one emotional filming day left people on set highly emotional. The music biopic is based on a section of the life of the legendary star Bruce Springsteen, played by Jeremy Allen White in the movie. Specifically, it focuses on the musician’s time making his album Nebraska.
Deliver Me From Nowhere was released this weekend to somewhat mixed reviews. The film has a 61% Tomatometer on Rotten Tomatoes, which pushes it just barely into the fresh side. Audiences gave it a higher 85%.
In an interview with ScreenRant‘s Liam Crowley, Cooper speaks on one particularly emotional aspect of the movie. Specifically, the director is speaking about Springsteen’s relationship with his father. Referencing a scene wherein Springsteen’s dad says, “I drive a bus now” solemnly, Cooper notes that multiple people had to leave the set on the day that was filmed.
Speaking more specifically about Springsteen’s father, he notes that their “relationship’s incredibly complex.” He hopes that people who see the film “will get the right help.” Check out the full quote from Cooper below:
Scott Cooper: A lot of people have seen this film now, whether at Telluride or the New York Film Festival and have approached me in the streets and said, ‘Scott, my father never told me he loved me. My father never told me he was proud of me. He died before we had a chance to reconcile.’ So you’re not alone. And this happens with cast and crew. While I was shooting that particular scene, quite a few crew members had to leave the set that day. So what you’re experiencing is sadly all too universal and relatable. The key is getting that help that you sought because men of a certain age, you’re young, so thankfully you were getting it now, but people who are older than you, including your father, if he’s still with us, find a difficult time giving voice to their pain.
Don’t know how to, A lot of it’s inherited. Bruce’s father was schizophrenic, genetic, never sought the help, never had the means to get the help when he had medication. Sometimes he would take it, sometimes he wouldn’t. The relationship’s incredibly complex. But I think the therapy helped Bruce realize that his father was suffering and didn’t get the help he needed, that it wasn’t that he didn’t love Bruce, it was that he couldn’t love Bruce because he didn’t love himself. So I think the first step towards acceptance and reconciliation is understanding. So I think once you understand that, which is the biggest hurdle, but once you understand that, I think it makes it a little bit easier. My hope is that people see the film in whatever way is they’re suffering, get the right help. And if they can find that reconciliation, then all the better.
For all the faults that some critics may find in Deliver Me from Nowhere, it is clear that this element is making an emotional impact. Cooper references people going up to him after major film festival releases to talk about their relationships with their own fathers.
This is emblematic of the film’s larger effort to humanize Springsteen as a person first, rather than just glorify his celebrity odyssey. This makes Deliver Me from Nowhere a highly personal piece of work which can connect with audiences even beyond the resonant music.
This made sense as an approach to Deliver Me from Nowhere, since its content emphasizes a smaller section of Springsteen’s career. Whereas some music biopics take broader strokes, this film’s Nebraska emphasis helped it to stay focused on the Boss’s relationships with his father and other key figures.
It will be interesting to see how the film’s current ressonance with many viewers maps onto its longer-term reception. Music biopics have done relatively well during awards seasons of late, most recently with A Complete Unknown being nominated for several Oscars last year.
White has already been in talks for an Oscar nod for the role. On the one hand, the film’s overall mixed reviews could skew conversation away from him. However, Springsteen’s relationship with his father could continue to touch some voting bodies, and allow White and other cast members to be nominated for major awards for Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere.