In 1982, Bruce Springsteen released Nebraska, an album of raw, haunting, acoustic tracks penned and recorded on a four-track recorder in the bedroom of his home in Colts Neck, New Jersey. It was a prelude to the global notoriety that ensued after the release of Born in the U.S.A. two years later, a true manifestation of ‘calm before the storm’. Nebraska, for many, is considered to be one of Springsteen’s most defining bodies of work, and it is the album that lies at the centre of Scott Cooper’s upcoming biopic, Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere. 

The choice to set the film in that seminal year was a deliberate one. Cooper paints a portrait of a man grappling with the past, a quiet portrayal of depression across generations, a deliberate discussion of masculinity and the price of fame. On screen, Jeremy Allen White transforms into Springsteen, adopting the musician’s instantly recognisable rasp and captivating stage presence in one of the most anticipated performances of his career. As much a story of Springsteen as it is of those around him, Cooper’s narrative unpicks the rockstar’s relationship with his father in a series of flashbacks starring Stephen Graham and amplifies the trusted partnership with his manager and record producer Jon Landau, brilliantly brought to life by Jeremy Strong.

Starring opposite White as Faye Romano is Odessa Young, taking on the straight-talking love interest of Springsteen’s early years. A reality check for the rockstar as his profile began to soar, Faye’s presence in his life offers an honesty unlike many others, as well as a muse for the heartfelt tracks written during that time. For Young, the project allowed her to delve into the work of a musician who has orbited her life since the very beginning, growing up in Australia listening to his albums on repeat in her family home. Despite a string of standout turns in the likes of Mothering Sunday, Shirley and Assassination Nation, this role marks her first studio movie in the traditional sense of the word. Embodying Faye with quick-witted tenacity and sharp-sensing emotion, the will-they-won’t-they love story is a perfect accompaniment to Cooper’s Springsteen deep dive. 

Ahead of the film’s release, we spoke to Young about her enduring love for Bruce Springsteen, delving into the No Wave scene of 80s New York and watching Jeremy Allen White perform on stage at The Stone Pony night after night.

Ella Joyce: What was your relationship to Bruce Springsteen and his music before this project? Were you a fan?
Odessa Young: Very much so, I was a huge Springsteen fan going into this. I grew up in what I would call a Springsteen house, where basically every single member of my family has their own personal relationship with his music, and he would be playing on the stereo at any family gathering. The nights would always end with members of my family maybe getting a little bit too wine drunk and putting on their favourite Springsteen song and forcing everybody to shut up and listen to it. He was a very big part of mine and my family’s life. I was very excited to hear about the project in general and then could never even imagine actually being a part of it but…

EJ: Here we are! [both laugh] How did the project come into your life?
OY: A friend had sent me the Deadline article saying that it was happening, before Scott Cooper was even involved in it. It was just a very amorphous, vague thing like, a Bruce Springsteen biopic is happening, but nobody knows anything about it yet. I got my wonderful agent to call the producers and basically say, “If there is anything she can do, my client will do it.” At the time, they didn’t have a script because they didn’t have Scott, so I think they were like, “Haha, that’s very funny. We’ll get back to you.” Then the audition request came to me very normally, I put down a self-tape and was so nervous about how I had done. I was so convinced that I had just ruined everything. I had to write Scott a letter and say, “Just so you know, this means so much to me. I’m so happy this is happening, whether or not I’m a part of it. Here is why it means so much to me, and I’m so excited to see it.” Then I found out a couple of weeks later that he wanted me to play the part. It was all very straightforward, but also at every step of the way, I was getting increasingly nauseated by the fear of this thing happening. [laughs] 

EJ: As someone who is a fan of his music, I wanted to ask you about the choice to set this biopic in the year of 1982. How do you feel this time period and the release of Nebraska were significant for Bruce’s career? 
OY: I think that what was happening to him in those couple of years was and is still to this day, the emotional engine of his work. He’s trying to repair something in himself, which is what initiates his exploration of what he sees in the human condition and writes about in the rest of his work, not just Nebraska. Nebraska is a very simplified and distilled version of the aspects that he has been writing about since the start of his career and still does to this day. Ultimately, the reckoning with the father as well, and I mean the father as an archetypal figure, because obviously his reckoning with his father was very specific and unique. I think those were the years that culminated in finding out about his father’s mental health struggle, or he was finding words for his father’s mental health struggle while he himself was going through his first bout of major depression. Whether it’s a coincidence or cosmic, the fact that it’s all happening at the same time in his life while he is on the brink of superstardom, I think, is what made him the man he is today. To me, that’s why I look at that time and I think that’s probably the most elemental version of Bruce that there is. 

EJ: It felt pivotal, and the flashbacks felt really important, on a contextual and emotional level. You play Faye, Bruce’s love interest. When you were reading the script, what was it that attracted you to her character? 
OY: She’s just cool. She’s so much cooler than I am, and she’s so much more self-assured and honest than I am. Not that I’m dishonest, but it’s the strength in her vulnerability. She knows how badly it could go. She knows that, on paper, a hometown girl falling in love with a massive rockstar with commitment issues looks pretty bad. It looks like it’s probably not going to work out, but she has the wisdom to know that maybe it’s as simple as saying you miss 100 percent of the shots you don’t take anyway. She’s had failed relationships before, she’s a single mother, she’s not in this for the fun of it, she’s in this because she thinks they could build something really beautiful and interesting. If Bruce had been slightly more emotionally and spiritually advanced in his journey at the time that they met, there’s a version in which they could have been great partners for each other, and she sees that. I like how she just goes for it and how it’s not about, “Oh let me please this really powerful, famous musician,” she’s holding him to task, and she’s treating him like one should treat someone that they want to enter into a partnership with.

“That’s the beautiful thing about relationships that don’t work: they are still always for a reason to teach you something.”

EJ: The tone is really set when we’re first introduced to her on screen. I love the way she’s just ballsy. [both laugh] She’s like, “Oh, you can take my number if you want.” 
OY: Oh yeah, she’s ballsy. Part of it is an act, of course. She’s obviously starstruck; it’s still exciting to her. She’s still very much a fan of the music and very much a fan of his work. She’s not completely unaffected by it, but she’s doing something about it. 

EJ: I loved their dynamic. Even though their ending is quite heartbreaking, it’s relatable. Everybody at one point in their life is faced with a part of themselves in a relationship that they don’t want to come to terms with. 
OY: Exactly. What a gift, right? That’s the beautiful thing about relationships that don’t work: they are still always for a reason to teach you something.

EJ: How do you see Faye’s presence accenting Bruce’s journey in that way?
OY: It’s funny because the line in the movie when he’s on the road trip and he says something like, “Wow, she was right” – that wasn’t in the script. I think that’s what Faye could give Bruce in that moment, this unflinching honesty. She’s like, “I’m not angry at you, I just see all of the ways you are shooting yourself in the foot. Yeah, you hurt me, yeah, it sucks, I can say all of that, but actually, the person you’re hurting the most is yourself.” I think she shapes the way he goes through the last part of that film, the last part of the journey we’re seeing. 

EJ: I read in the production notes that Kasia Walicka-Maimone [costume designer] modelled the look of your character on a young Debbie Harry. What was it like getting to build that with her through wardrobe, make-up, and hair? It’s such a fun period to delve into. 
OY: Kasia is amazing, and Jackie [Risotto] is our make-up artist. I don’t know how Kasia found the things that she found. She had unlimited access to all of the vintage warehouses in New York. Everything that I was wearing was from that era, in great condition and deadstock. Really amazing stuff, she has such an eye for detail and for shapes. We would have this refrain that would come up a lot because obviously Faye was supposed to be really cool, modelled on Debbie Harry and modelled on that New York no wave scene, and we talked about how she definitely spent time in the city. She had been running around at that time with those people but now, she’d been living back home in New Jersey for a little while and there is more of a practicality, more of a Jersey look. And you have to fit into that Jersey look, you can’t just be the girl who comes back from New York City and continues to wear spikes in your ears.

When we were trying clothes on for Faye, we’d be like, “That’s a little too New York, it’s a little flashy or too experimental,” something about it was not as grounded as the references that Kasia had pulled for the New Jersey style. That attention to detail is so brilliant to work with as an actor because I’m always trying to be painfully specific about things – really annoyingly specific about things. [laughs] So, when you come to work with someone who is as specific as you, if not more so, it’s always so exciting because you feel like part of the job is done for you, and she’s just brilliant. 

EJ: There is such a great dynamic between you and Jeremy on screen. What was it like working with him and watching him transform into Springsteen? 
OY: It kind of just happened. I wouldn’t say he was specifically in character between takes, but he was definitely holding the mood with him while we were on set. In the weeks before we were shooting, when we were doing rehearsals, we’d see each other around the production office and he was very different to how he became when we were on set. But Scott doesn’t like to rehearse. That is fine, I love a challenge. [both laugh] We basically didn’t talk about the scenes, we talked about a lot of the things that we needed to, in terms of sharing what was going on behind the frame, between the scenes that we were shooting. We were like, “Oh, they’re probably going on a couple dates a week.” But other than that, we didn’t have rehearsals, and we didn’t really have much time. Jeremy was usually doing pre-records and stuff for the music, doing all of his brilliant work and practising. On my first day, I came into the house in Colts Neck, where we were shooting. I walked onto set and usually you walk onto set and you get taken to the green room, people touch up your make-up and your costume, then you walk to set for a camera rehearsal, then you say hi to everyone – that’s usually how it goes. I literally walk into the door of this house, Scott meets me at the door, everything is dead quiet and he’s like, “So, the camera is rolling. Jeremy’s in there. Do you want to go in and start the scene?” I was like, “Fucking hell, Jesus, OK.” [both laugh] Which is terrifying but also highly liberating because you know as soon as you get that one awful take out of the way, then you’re working, you’re already there, you’re in it, there’s no fussing around and you don’t have time to get in your head. With Jeremy, I think we both just knew what was required for that relationship and for that chemistry. 

“I think that what was happening to him in those couple of years was and is still to this day, the emotional engine of his work.”

EJ: I was actually going to ask you what it was like working with Scott. His back catalogue lends itself to studies of very human stories and adaptations of novels or lived experiences, so it makes sense he was the one to bring this biopic to life. 
OY: I think so, too. Bruce had said to Scott when he was being chosen for the film, something along the lines of, “You make movies about the America that I write about in my music.” I think that’s just perfect, it’s so true.

EJ: Wow, what a line.
OY: I know. 

EJ: Did Bruce visit set? 
OY: Yeah, all the time.

EJ: How was that?
OY: Great, I loved it. [both laugh] 

EJ: It must feel pretty special to have that seal of approval from him.
OY: I can’t even imagine what it must have felt like for Jeremy to be able to get the seal of approval in real time. I remember walking onto set during one of Jeremy’s performance scenes and Bruce was there behind the monitor with the biggest grin on his face, rocking out to Jeremy’s version of his song. That must be such a brilliant little lightning strike halfway through production to keep you going.

EJ: Did you use any musical references yourself when prepping for the role or to build Faye’s character?
OY: I was listening to a lot of that no wave early 80s New York scene, I was listening to Blondie and Debbie Harry a lot and Television – all those bands. But, it’s interesting because I weirdly don’t love to listen to a lot of music when I’m working because it can just be too many words. Sometimes it’s like, “I actually need to hear white noise for a bit.” So, usually I listen to something very boring and melancholy, but there were some moments. The other thing is, I had the actual music at The Stone Pony with Cats [Cats on a Smooth Surface, the New Jersey bar band Springsteen used to play with] and Jeremy playing live in front of me. All of those scenes in The Stone Pony were done live, the background actors were really there, we’re really listening to the music, I’m really in the audience, it’s fucking sweaty, people are smoking those fake cigarettes, drinking non alcoholic beer and it felt real. The music in the film did that for me, so I didn’t really have to stretch too far to get myself into the groove.

EJ: That’s amazing. 
OY: I know, right? I have attended a Jeremy Allen-White concert with Bruce Springsteen. [laughs]

EJ: I don’t think we need to say anymore. That’s it, we’re done! [both laugh]

Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere is out in cinemas from October 24th.