In an era where method acting has caused the resurgence of the double/triple threat, it’s not wrong to ask the question: should we even consider the likes of Timothee Chalamet or Austin Butler for their newfound musical merit? Is it fair, or even worth our time, to hold them to the standards of career musicians? 

I’m sure you can infer from the fact that this is not a movie column that I’m going to answer at least one of those questions in the affirmative. Because when the internet begs for the cast of Daisy Jones and the Six to go on tour and Chalamet receives a Grammy nomination for his work in A Complete Unknown’s soundtrack, professional lines start to get a little blurry. 

The goal here is not to compose a comprehensive review of the recently released Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere. Instead, I intend to assess the film’s lead actor, Jeremy Allen White, as a musician. (And if you’ve seen the movie, I urge you to extract his performance from the film’s subpar narrative as much as you can.) 

Nebraska

Bruce Springsteen’s sixth studio album, Nebraska, was released in 1982 and marked a significant shift in his music career. A polarizing project, it stuck out to listeners for better or for worse. Not only was it his first expedition into darker themes, with a raw folk sound that starkly contrasted his previous rock ‘n’ roll hits, but it was recorded on a four-track recorder in his bedroom in Colts Neck, New Jersey. This controversial choice has since been recognized as one of the first DIY recordings by a major artist, and is a central plotline in the biopic. 

These days, as recording equipment becomes more accessible to the basement musician, this is more common. But at the time, Springsteen was paving the way for indie music. 

White’s Vocal Chops

So, how does White fare at capturing this influential sound? 

For starters, I’d say he does the tortured artist thing well. The day after I saw the movie in theatres, I tried to listen to the released songs on the soundtrack on a long walk home but had to turn it off. His voice carries Springsteen’s melancholic childhood memories and fixation on killers with a ghostly accuracy that can be hard to listen to if you’re unprepared. 

There is one scene in the movie where White lies on the floor of his Colts Neck house, a space which reminded me of cottages in Ontario’s lake country, listening to a song called Suicide. Deep in the throes of a depressive episode, he describes the torturous staccato of the track as “the best thing he has ever heard.” When I think about White’s soulful performances of Nebraska and Atlantic City, that physical, emotional depth is breathed into the lyrics. I had to stop listening because that particular plane of sadness births an eerie species of discomfort. 

And isn’t that what good music is supposed to make us do? Feel things in those dark corners of our minds that we try to avoid? 

Watching the movie in theatres is more of an exhilarating experience, because you get to watch White perform live a couple of times. Not nearly enough, though. The energy he brings to the stage in the opening scene, screaming sideways into the microphone, sets the tone for White’s vocal performance throughout the film. Yeah. He’s got it. 

In an interview for the YouTube series Hot Ones, White says learning to sing (or scream) like Springsteen left him with migraines. In my books, that level of commitment for “just an actor” is pretty impressive. After all, White’s vocal take on Springsteen is uncanny. 

After many listens, I can start to hear White’s unique tone and inflection that I’ve gotten to know through some of his other characters like Carmy Berzatto and Lip Gallagher. But I’m really quite impressed at how long it took me to pick out the difference.

Interviews with the two stars reveal that Springsteen was impressed with White’s accuracy, but that he wanted White to put his own spin on the record. 

I think that if White were to make his version sound absolutely identical, he wouldn’t have achieved such success in breathing life into a 43-year-old album. 

But if one thing is clear, as a rising heartthrob with a knack for mastering characters with niche fields of expertise — whether it’s a Michelin-star chef or a global rock ‘n’ roll superstar — White is up for any method-acting challenge. 

The rest of the movie soundtrack is set to come out on Dec. 5. Will White score a Grammy nomination like Chalamet, or will the movie’s lackluster reception overshadow his vocal success? We’ll just have to wait and see.