This chat with Jeremy Allen White appears in issue 42 of Vanity Fair on kiosks until October 14, 2025.
On Tiktok they’re dubbing it the “Jeremy Allen White phenomenon”: It’s that impulsive urge to trek back from the marketplace clutching a cluster of freshly picked blooms, ideally on a Sunday morn. The thespian has been at it for ages at the City Farmers Market Studio in Los Angeles. The initial images surfaced around 2023: bountiful bunches of vibrant, in-season blossoms, morphing into a web sensation. When questioned, he downplays it: «There’s no secret here, I simply adore blossoms, and I relish arranging them with my daughters. That’s the long and short of it. “
Jeremy Allen White, 34, hailing from Brooklyn, New York, doesn’t appear enamored with the limelight. Dressed in a black tee, sporting a curious gaze, he consistently pauses for a bit before responding. Setting aside “Yes, Chef!” from Carmic’s kitchen, Jeremy prefers to carefully consider his statements, space out his delivery, all the while maintaining eye contact. On the heels of The Bear‘s two Emmy wins, three golden globes, the memes circulating on social media, and the fixation on his personal life, which he never voluntarily exposes, he’s undeniably the “it” guy of the moment. And like every “it” guy, he’s already confronted the darker aspects, navigated through them. Today, he’s embarking on the most challenging role of his profession: portraying Bruce Springsteen. Not the renowned figure of Born in the USA, but the susceptible adolescent of 1982. In Springsteen – free me from nothing – The eagerly awaited cinematic creation from 20th Century Studios, helmed by Scott Cooper, drawing inspiration from the Warren Zanes novel of the same title, Hitting cinemas from October 23rd, he embodies “the boss” at a pivotal juncture in his life: his return to New Jersey post the grueling tour of The River. From that feeling of abandonment emerged Nebraska, the most personal and radical album of his journey, inscribed in the bedroom in Colts Neck on a four-track recorder, teeming with laborers, renegades, and adrift souls at the core of America.
The film zeroes in on that turning point, punctuated by monochromatic flashbacks into his blue-collar upbringing in Freehold, his abusive father (Stephen Graham), the backing of his confidant and manager Jon Landau (Jeremy Strong), and the stifling bond with Faye (Odessa Young). A despondent Bruce, spiraling downwards, portrayed by White with a gaunt, agitated expression. To breathe life into him, he honed his singing to mirror his, mastered the guitar, under Springsteen’s watchful eyes, who monitored the film’s progression and graced the set on numerous occasions. At the New York Film Festival, the actor recounted the inaugural, genuine interaction between them: “I queried him:” Why this film? Why this specific era? “. He responded without hesitation: he told me about a panic attack, when he felt like an outsider observing his own life, detached from himself. And it’s an emotion that I am intimately familiar with. In that instant, I realized there was a connection between us ».
Who was Bruce Springsteen circa 1982?
«I believe he was encountering a degree of recognition for the first time he was not accustomed to. He was delving into the profound essence of his being. He had dedicated years to journeying, frequently experiencing tedium and perpetual motion. When we encounter him in this film, however, he has circled back home. We perceive him as a man intrigued by his destiny, yet concurrently troubled by what awaits him. He endeavors to conduct himself appropriately, to the best of his capabilities ».
