Jeremy Allen White was honored at the 2025 Gotham Independent Film Awards for his transformative performance in Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere.
The actor, 34, and his Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere director, Scott Cooper, received the Cultural Icon Tribute Award at Cipriani Wall Street in New York City on Monday, December 1, in recognition of their Bruce Springsteen biopic.
“We’re very grateful that Bruce allowed us into [his] space. And to tell a story he had never told himself and never mythologized,” White said while accepting the award, struggling to pronounce the word “mythologized.”
“Sorry folks, I’m very tired,” he joked about the blunder, sending the audience into a fit of laughter.
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He continued, “He let us meet him at his most human, vulnerable, searching and that kind of trust is rare. It is a gift and it is the reason this film exists at all. So to receive this award to tonight for portraying a culture icon by refusing to treat him like one, is something we will carry with us for the rest of our lives.”
The Gotham Film & Media Institute announced in November that White and Cooper, 55, would be among the honorees at the annual independent film gala.
“Bruce Springsteen has captivated audiences for more than fifty years and cemented his place as one of the greatest American musicians, songwriters, and performers in history,” The Gotham Film & Media Institute executive director, Jeffrey Sharp, said in a statement.
Sharp went on, “We are proud to celebrate Bruce’s legacy with writer-director Scott Cooper, whose film captures the intimacy and humanity at the heart of Nebraska, and Jeremy Allen White, whose performance reveals a raw, searching portrait of Springsteen at a crossroads. Their collaboration embodies the kind of filmmaking that defines The Gotham community.”
The night also featured Michael B. Jordan, Hailee Steinfeld and the cast of Sinners receiving the Ensemble Tribute, as well as Song Sung Blue’s Hugh Jackman and Kate Hudson being given a Musical Tribute, among others.
One Battle After Another led the overall nominations in Gotham’s competitive categories with six nods in total, including Best Feature and Best Director for Paul Thomas Anderson. Rose Byrne’s psychological drama If I Had Legs I’d Kick You received four nominations, while French-Iranian thriller It Was Just an Accident and South Korean black comedy No Other Choice earned three nods each.
Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere has been seen as a potential awards season contender for White. The two-time Emmy Award winner received critical acclaim for his physical transformation in playing Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee Springsteen.
The musical drama takes place during a pivotal point in Springsteen’s career as he recorded the sparse and gritty 1982 album Nebraska. Succession’s Jeremy Strong plays Springsteen’s manager and producer Jon Landau, while The Stand’s Odessa Young portrays a young waitress named Faye, who is loosely based on some of Springsteen’s lovers from that era.
White rerecorded several of Springsteen’s classic songs for Deliver Me from Nowhere, despite having no previous vocal experience. He went into extensive vocal training to prepare for the role, though he still managed to blow out his voice during recording sessions.
“[Bruce] had years and years of playing in rooms like this and in s****y P.A. systems and really like testing his voice and training, and I didn’t have that,” he told People in October. “I didn’t have that time, so I needed to shout and that took me out. I remember recording ‘Born in the U.S.A.’ and losing my voice for a couple days.”
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He ultimately credited Springsteen with being extremely supportive of his vocal performance. (Springsteen and Landau consulted on Deliver Me from Nowhere and consented to the rocker’s music being used in the film.)
“Obviously, I’m never gonna reach Bruce’s level of singing but even to be an artist and to have a young actor performing your music, ego has to be involved somewhere, no matter how evolved you are,” White told BBC Radio 1 in October. “The fact that he was so appreciative … it was just a really beautiful moment for me in the process.”
Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere is now playing in theaters.
