Bruce Springsteen stayed away from biopic set during ‘deeply personal’ scenes

He may be the Boss, but Bruce Springsteen is also a considerate coworker.

In a new interview with Rolling Stone, the rock icon shared his thoughts on the upcoming biopic Deliver Me From Nowhere, which stars The Bear‘s Jeremy Allen White as Springsteen circa 1982.

The musician says that even though the biopic — which explores Springsteen’s upbringing in Freehold, N.J., and the recording of his 1982 album Nebraska — involves “some of the most painful days of my life,” that wasn’t the reason he chose to stay away from set at times.

“If there was a scene coming up that was sometimes really deeply personal, I wanted the actors to feel completely free, and I didn’t want to get in the way, and so I would just stay at home,” Springsteen explained. “If Scott Cooper, the director, wanted or needed me there for something, I would try to make it.” That said, Springsteen praised White for being “very, very tolerant of me the days that I would appear on the set.”

Deliver Me From Nowhere, which hits theaters Oct. 24, also stars Jeremy Strong as Jon Landau, a music critic-turned-Springsteen’s producer and manager; Paul Walter Hauser as Mike Batlan, who helped Springsteen set up a low-tech recording setup in his New Jersey bedroom; Marc Maron as Chuck Plotkin, the producer who mastered the singer’s Nebraska recordings; and Stephen Graham (Adolescence) as Springsteen’s father, Douglas.

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When asked if he would consider playing Nebraska straight through at a live show for the first time to help promote the movie’s release, Springsteen didn’t say yes — but he didn’t say no, either. “I doubt I’ll do it, but I could possibly go out and play that record straight through one day,” he replied. “I think that would be fun to do, and the fans would get a kick out of it. That’s not off the table.”