Before Jeremy Allen White suits up as Bruce Springsteen in an upcoming biopic, he’s taken time to contact the legendary rocker.
While attending the Prelude to the Olympics festivities on Thursday, July 25, White, 33, confirmed to Variety that he has “texted and emailed” with Springsteen, 74.
While The Bear star did not divulge the nature of the pair’s exchanges, he noted that Springsteen messages “like a boss.” (Springsteen is famously referred to as “The Boss” among fans.)
White is also hoping to jet off from Paris to London to catch Springsteen’s sold-out concert at Wembley Stadium on Saturday, July 27.
“I’m really excited to see him perform,” White gushed on Thursday.
News broke in March that White would portray The Boss in the upcoming biopic, titled Deliver Me From Nowhere. The film will chart the period of Springsteen’s life and career when he recorded 1982’s Nebraska, based on Warren Zanes’ 2023 nonfiction biography, Deliver Me from Nowhere: The Making of Bruce Springsteen’s Nebraska.
It is currently unknown whether White will sing in the picture.
“We’re gonna try. We’re gonna try our best,” White joked to Variety in June before detailing his hopes to personally connect with Springsteen. “We’ve communicated a little bit through some other people, but I hope this still all comes together.”
He added, “We’ve still got a few things, we’ve got some timing stuff to work out, and I’m trying to have a bit of my own process with it before meeting the man, too.”
Springsteen previously had complicated feelings about watching his life story play out on the silver screen.
“I haven’t dove into that yet,” he told IndieWire in a 2019 interview. “It’s kind of something I’ve just held off on because so few of them are successful. Finding someone to play yourself is really weird.”
Springsteen, however, was not interested in portraying the role himself.
“I had years of preparation to be a musician and to be a writer,” he said at the time. “I understood that when I was 25 and a couple of people were looking around to see if I had any interest in it. I said, ‘Well, I feel like I just haven’t done the homework or the preparation to be an actor.’ I didn’t have the confidence, whereas the music I was completely confident in at least what I was doing. And I liked that feeling, so I stuck with it.”
Springsteen has not publicly addressed White’s casting aside from their private chats.