Jeremy Allen White has opened up about the unusual process of transforming into Bruce Springsteen for the upcoming biopic Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere — a film that follows the rock icon during the creation of his haunting 1982 album, Nebraska.
To authentically capture Springsteen’s look, White—whose eyes are naturally blue—wore custom, hand-painted brown contact lenses for close-up shots. Describing the experience on the Table Manners podcast, the actor revealed that the lenses were far from ordinary.
“They had someone hand-paint the contacts so that all the little lines and details of the eyes were with me,” he explained. “Then they had to put little weights in the contacts to keep them still, because normally, with clear contacts, they’re always moving around.”
The process was so meticulous that a crew member was assigned solely to manage his eye comfort.
“There was this man who was in charge of giving me eye drops every 20 minutes,” White recalled. “He was a lovely man, just doing his job, but I remember having this Pavlovian response to him — he’d come over in the middle of a scene with the drops!”
When he first tried on the lenses at home, the transformation had an emotional impact on his family — especially his eldest daughter, Ezer.
“My oldest daughter, Ezer, has my blue eyes and my youngest has brown eyes, like their mother,” he said. “Ezer was heartbroken. She thought we’d lost this thing that we share — our eyes.”
White also shared that Springsteen himself visited the set and watched portions of his performance, offering kindness and encouragement.
“He’s been lovely and very supportive throughout the process,” White noted. “In the beginning, I was being asked questions about Bruce’s childhood and things like that. I have my understanding from speaking to him and from what I’ve read, but at the end of the day, the man is here — it’s not really my place to speak about.”
“I had a job to try to interpret as much as I could,” he added, “but I don’t get the final say in any of these things. You know, Bruce is here.”
Already celebrated for his leading role in The Bear—for which he has earned two Emmys and three Golden Globes—White continues to demonstrate his versatility. His previous acclaimed performances include Lip Gallagher in Shameless and Kerry Von Erich in the wrestling drama The Iron Claw.
