From 20th Century Studios, Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere chronicles the making of Bruce Springsteen’s 1982 Nebraska album when he was a young musician on the cusp of global superstardom, struggling to reconcile the pressures of success with the ghosts of his past. Recorded on a 4-track recorder in Springsteen’s New Jersey bedroom, the album marked a pivotal time in his life and is considered one of his most enduring works – a raw, haunted acoustic record populated by lost souls searching for a reason to believe.
Starring Jeremy Allen White as the Boss, the film is written for the screen and directed by Scott Cooper, based on the book “Deliver Me from Nowhere” by Warren Zanes. As the drama arrives in theatres globally this week, Peter Gray spoke with Australian actor Harrison Sloan Gilbertson, who portrays Matt Delia in the film, one of Springsteen’s closest friends.
Ahead of the film’s release, the two spoke about how it felt for Gilbertson to play a real-life figure, how knowing White prior to filming assisted in their on-screen dynamic, and what most surprised him the most about the portrayed friendship.
You’re playing a man who we know exists, but it also doesn’t feel like he’s very heavily documented. Did that feel freeing or daunting at all to build him from fragments of what we know?
Yeah, I guess for me, the fragments weren’t so much a part of it, because Matt’s alive and I got to meet him and spend (time). I didn’t know anything, like was he still with us? And they told me he’s down in Jersey. He’s got a garage (there). So Matt very kindly let me spend a day with him at the garage, and I just got his perspective on that time in Bruce’s life as a friend, and particularly this friend that was on the road trip with him in this very life-changing moment that he had. I think to play anyone who is still living, or was living, is always an amazing gift, because you’re coming immediately from a point of humanity, and Matt’s just the most beautiful guy. I think Bruce described him in his book as a mechanic with the soul of a poet. And that’s exactly what he felt like. He’s just a gorgeous human, and after that meeting, I felt even more honoured that I was playing him. He’s just a solid person and a good friend.
I was going to ask, obviously it helps having met him. You’re playing someone so connected to a living icon, there’s a danger in getting lost in “the legend.” In meeting Matt, was it a case of seeing that he was more than just part of the Springsteen myth, so to speak?
Yeah. That’s one of the fascinating things about his part in the story. Bruce is a very real, solid person as well. The funniest thing about meeting him is that you feel there’d be some iota of superstardom, the guy that sold out Wembley three nights in a row…but he’s so real. You just see the man. You’re seeing him as a person. And I think that’s because he kept people his whole life that were close friends. Bruce’s ego is very minimal, from my understanding. I think people like Matt respect the importance of them in his life. I know Matt is very protective of Bruce. That’s the one thing I know. He’s always been very protective of him.
The script would give you this idea of his spirit and your instinct. In meeting him, did having access to those accounts and stories change your perspective of him? Did the idea of who he was on the page change for you?
Absolutely. You know, Scott is such a wonderful director. There was a lot of improv things that didn’t make the film, but we built the nature of Matt after our first meeting. He’s a very funny guy. Once I met Matt, I understood how to add some of his colour so he was more than just the guy on a road trip with Bruce.
Was there a particular insight or scene, either directed by Scott or in working with Jeremy, that shifted how you saw Matt as a person?
The whole thing was very collaborative. I knew Jeremy prior to this film. We met about 10 years ago on the scene and we had a rapport. I think when I was cast, that was an important thing to have, that comfortability between us two, because all the other characters in that world are obviously part of the music world in some way. Matt was someone who knew Bruce before everything. And so I think having that was something that we played off a lot. And then post-that meeting with Matt, and obviously Scott had met Matt, and I remember Scott saying how he went to Bruce’s birthday and saw Matt with Bruce, and he noticed how their interaction was very different to the other people. There was this brotherhood. Almost a boys-iness between them that was very different to the main presentation of what we know. I think we just played with that familiarity and that comfort and that deep, true love. It’s a film about a lot of male love and the support for each other, which I think is really important.
Is there a particular scene that made you feel Matt’s significance the most clearly? A moment that anchored who he was to Bruce?
Yeah, definitely. The final moment, I think, really encapsulates that. He’s dropped him off. There’s this look at the end of that, which I think is of someone who is trying to lift him up. (Matt) is trying to keep (Bruce) positive and get him out of his head. He knows that the state that he’s in when he leaves him in LA is not a good one. So there’s this moment of where I go to say something and I can’t find the words. There’s this look between them. I think that was a really beautiful choice that Scott made to have that moment. Sometimes, you can’t say what you need to say to somebody in that situation, but through your eyes and your souls you can say it better than any way that could be articulated.
This might be one of those on-the-spot questions, but do you feel there’s a Springsteen lyric that, to you, sums up their friendship?
Well, I know he wrote a song. This is on-the-spot (laughs), because my memory has to do its thing. He’s got a song about fast cars, and I know that he dedicated that to Matt. I wish I wrote this down. You never know the question you’re going to be asked, and it’s something I should remember. I know he did dedicate a song at a concert to Matt, because Matt has so often gone with him. I think all of Bruce’s song represent a lot of people from Jersey. Blue collar, real living people. So I’m sure there’s lyrics (about Matt) if I thought about it.
And after meeting Matt, was there one particular thing that you saw of him, whether it was the way he walked, or he said certain words, or a quirk, but something that you could grab on to and really emulate him on screen?
Yeah, I think the scene in the film in the garage. Matt is incredibly playful. That was the main thing I picked up on. There are these eccentricities to Matt that I noticed immediately, because he picked me up on his car, and we drove fast from New York to New Jersey, so I was just watching a lot of stuff in the car. The way his hand hung out the window. The way his eyes flicked around as he was chatting. But he’s a man who can tell you four stories at once, and you’re kind of in the middle wondering which story you’re on, and then they all just dovetail perfectly. And you then know exactly why he told you all four stories. And Scott was so wonderful in letting me improv. He’s a beautiful director in trusting you. A really good director lets you feel comfortable, and so I always felt very free on set to throw any idiosyncratic things out that I noticed, and if needed to rein it in, we’d rein it in. It was just a really beautiful, creative experience.
Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere is now screening in Australian theatres.
