Jeremy Allen White Crying in Therapy in ‘Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere’ Is His Oscar Reel Moment

I hate to burst bubbles, but I’m not convinced that Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere—which was screened for press today at the 2025 New York Film Festival—will earn Jeremy Allen White his first Oscar nomination. But if it does, then I am convinced that his Oscar reel clip will include the scene where White breaks down in tears in therapy.

Written and directed by Scott Cooper, Deliver Me from Nowhere is not your typical musician biopic. Rather than spanning the life and career of Bruce Springsteen, the film zeroes on the creation of Springsteen’s 1982 album Nebraska. Defying all norms, the singer-songwriter followed up his chart-topping album The River with a slow, personal, solo acoustic album, for which he did no promotion, no press, and no tour.

White stars as Springsteen in the months when he recorded this album, alone in his New Jersey bedroom. (Though, occasionally joined by recording engineer Mike Batlan, played by the always-great Paul Walter Hauser.) Via black-and-white flashbacks to Springsteen as a boy in the ’50s, the movie drives home that, really, Nebraska was Springsteen working through his complicated relationship with his alcoholic, sometimes abusive father (played by Stephen Graham).

In the movie, after Springsteen finishes the album—and after he convinces his team to release it as the stripped-down, acoustic version he recorded on the demo—he feels more down than ever before. Following a panic attack and a few dark nights in his new home in California, he calls up his manager and producer Jon Landau (played by Jeremy Strong), and tells him he’s at a low point. Jon gives it to Bruce straight: He needs to seek professional help.

And so, Bruce does. In a brief but powerful scene near the end of the film, the rock star walks into a therapist’s office. The therapist acknowledges how hard it is to take the first step, and asks Bruce to start talking–wherever he wants to begin—about what is that brought him in. We don’t need any black-and-white flashbacks or echoing voice-overs to know what Springsteen is thinking in this moment. The trauma inflicted by his father is all plainly written in White’s expression.

Then, without saying a word, White’s face crumples. The mask slip away, and he begins to cry in earnest. All it took was the gentlest of prods from a therapist for all the repressed fear, anger, and despair to come up to the surface. White plays exactly right, with just enough emotion to break your heart, but not so much that it feels cheesy.

Deliver Me From Nowhere is a smaller, quieter movie than some may be expecting, especially for show-stopping performer like The Boss. That’s why I’m not so sure there’s enough meat there for the Academy to bestow an White with an Oscar nomination, however deserved. But if there’s one scene that might push White’s chances over the edge, it’s that one. Finally, a man who goes to therapy.