Bruce Springsteen On Western Stars And If We’ll Ever See A Boss Biopic

The last time Bruce Springsteen had any sort of crisis of professional confidence may have been 45 years back. He can actually pinpoint the time. He was 25. Born to Run had just been released to crucial and commercial success, propelling Bruce to worldwide fame — and suddenly acting possibilities were beginning to emerge. However even a young movie lover like Bruce knew this wasn’t the correct path for him.


“I mentioned, ‘Well, I just feel like I haven’t done the homework and the preparation to be an actor.’ I didn’t have the confidence," he mentioned. "Whereas in music I was totally confident. I admired that feeling, so I stuck with it.”


It’s worked out pretty well for now. Nevertheless it’s funny how things come full circle. This weekend, Springsteen makes his feature film directing debut with Western Stars, an intimate portrait of an aging artist cleverly disguised as a concert film. In the film, co-directed by his frequent collaborator Thom Zimny, Springsteen performs his newest album live indoor his century-old barn. While the efficiency is the center of the project, archival footage and vignettes frame the film more as a meditation on love and loss, regrets and developments from Springsteen's eyes.


The intimacy of the feature is probably why Springsteen has invited a little sort of journalists to his New Jersey residence to talk about his latest artsy task to undertake over bagels. It's here, from the comfort of his own couch in the sitting room next to his residence recording studio, that he opens up about his creative process. "The part that really turned it into what I think was a film," he mentioned, "was whenever we began to shoot the little films that come between each song."


He wrote the script in one night. He and Zimny shot the vignettes that illuminate the backstory of the album over the course of two days in Joshua Tree National Park. Springsteen casually mentions that they edited it at his farm in much less than two weeks.


Nevertheless don’t let the accelerated timeline fool you: There’s nothing haphazard about the 70-year-old first-time filmmaker. Movies have been in his bones forever.


WESTERNS


Western Stars opens with nostalgic iconography: the old Warner Bros. Logo. Springsteen laughs any time this is brought up in conversation. Immediately considering that, it's the same logo that opens one of his preference Westerns, John Ford’s The Searchers.


Ford, he explains, resonated with him not only in the themes he explored although in the way he built a crew of collaborators. “He was working on certain consistent themes as every picture went by and every picture categorize kind of related to another one in certain ways," he mentioned. "He had the cast of characters. He had the ensemble that he worked with really steadily. I had my musical group, and I was interested in telling this longer story where each album would relate to one another in a certain way.”


TERRENCE MALICK


Any Springsteen devotee won’t be surprised to learn that the works of Terrence Malick have been a key influence on him, beginning in the 1980s.


“I remember at the time that I wrote Nebraska I had seen Terrence Malick [movies] for the opening time. Terrence Malick’s films are meditative with plenty of voiceover — Days of Heaven, Tree of Life. That was habitually something that drew me in.”


“All of those things began to resonate and find their way into themes and soundscapes that I was interested in," he added. The Nebraska album really came from the soundscape of [Malick's] Badlands.”


BRUCE AT THE MOVIES


Movies were as integral to Springsteen's formative years as his New Jersey home. And the experience of going to the movies — sitting in seats alongside movie-loving strangers and consuming food popcorn — is something he remembers fondly.


“My generation of people, we’re used to going to the movies," he mentioned. "You went to the movies every week. Initially, my mother would take us. It was 35 cents in case you were 12, and $1 while you hit 13. So my mother would mention, 'Just tell them you’re 12. Get down! Squat down a little, and tell them you’re 12.’” (He laughs as he recalls how "shitty" it felt to pretend to be 12 as a full-grown teenager.)


Decades later, and Springsteen finally got to experience the thrill of seeing his own movie on the big screen while in its premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival earlier this year.


HE LOVES THE IRISHMAN


The timeline of Springsteen’s career dovetails nicely with that of another master who shows no signs of slowing down — his longtime friend, Martin Scorsese. Or, as he calls him: Marty. Yes, he’s seen Scorsese’s latest, The Irishman, and yes, he’s a fan.


“It was just cute to be able to see that cast [Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, and Joe Pesci] working with each other again and to be able to see Marty at the best of his game. There’s never going to be a crowd of actors quite like that again. And in case you grew up with them as folks in my generation did, it’s a powerful picture.”


BUT HE ALSO LOVES ONCE UPON A TIME… IN HOLLYWOOD


Coincidentally, Western Stars shares some notable themes and even character types with one of the most beloved films of the year. A nostalgic look at a time gone by? An aging cowboy? A stuntman? @We could as well be talking about Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood.


Did Springsteen notice the similarities? “I did," he laughs. "I mentioned, ‘Well, that’s a funny little coincidence.’ That was one of my main go to photos of the past year. I really fancied that picture a lot. It was quite touching and quite lovely.”


DON’T HOLD YOUR BREATH FOR THAT BIOPIC


As much as Springsteen’s music has been a piece of the fabric of film history — from his Oscar-winning song for Philadelphia to this year’s Blinded by the Light, we have however to be able to see a biopic about The manager. Springsteen is in no rush. “It’s sort of something I’ve contained off on because so few of those are successful," he mentioned. "And finding someone to play yourself is really weird! It’s just been something I haven’t got involved with. I don’t know if I will.”


BUT IF A BOSS BIOPIC DID HAPPEN... 


Walk the Line director — and Springsteen fan — James Mangold has contemplated building a Springsteen film that would detail the depressive two years after the release of Born to Run, any time whenever he was legally unable to record new material. As soon as this is posed as a possibility, he says, “That’s interesting. Somebody came up and recently wanted to shoot a picture that went up to Born to Run. So if we get both guys doing it, we’ll have the full story!”


Although perhaps Western Stars teaches us that Springsteen's story is best told by The manager himself.