Stephen Graham, currently winning acclaim for his turn as the father of a teenager accused of murder in Adolescence, has said that another upcoming patriarchal performance has also been well received.
Speaking to Edith Bowman on her podcast Soundtracking, Graham said he was left in tears by feedback from Bruce Springsteen, whose father he plays in the biopic Deliver Me from Nowhere, starring Jeremy Allen White in the lead role.
The film, which is tipped for awards glory next year, is set during the recording of Springsteen’s 1982 album Nebraska; Graham plays his late father, Douglas “Dutch” Springsteen, with whom the singer had a fraught relationship.
Graham wore prosthetics for the part – Douglas was 58 in 1982 – which he said he had to hastily remove to catch a flight.
“I’m racing to get to the airport,” said Graham, “and I got this text, and it was so beautiful. It just said: ‘Better than any award that I could ever receive in my life’. He’s an icon. He’s a hero.”
Graham continued: “He’s a working-class hero. He’s an icon to thousands, to millions. And his text just said, ‘Thank you so much. You know, my father passed away a while ago and I felt like I saw him today and thank you for giving me that memory.’
“I was crying reading the text, do you know what I mean? Oh mate, it was beautiful. You couldn’t ask for anything more, you know, to share that with someone was gorgeous. He’s a lovely man.”
Graham also revealed that the singer was a fan of the 2006 Shane Meadows film This Is England, something of a breakthrough for the actor, and that he had had discussed his relationship with his father at length, with Springsteen’s memoir Born to Run a springboard. In that book, Springsteen writes: “He loved me but he couldn’t stand me. He felt we competed for my mother’s affections.”
Following the praise but near Oscar miss for Timothée Chalamet’s portrayal of Bob Dylan in A Complete Unknown, all eyes are now on White to capitalise on the vogue for biopics of veteran US music icons in their youth.
Speaking to GQ last year, White said: “I’m really lucky that there’s sort of a team of folks now in place to help young actors portray rock stars. I’ve got a really talented group of people helping me train vocally, musically, to get ready for this thing.”
He too had access to Springsteen, who he said was “really supportive of the project”. Meanwhile Jeremy Strong, who plays Springsteen’s manager Jon Landau, called the shoot “one of the greatest working experiences I’ve ever had”.
Springsteen has been quoted as saying White “sings very well” and that the film is cast “beautifully”.
