Diksha Sundriyal
Directed by Scott Cooper, ‘Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere’ focuses on a turbulent time in the life of Bruce Springsteen. The story picks up in the aftermath of the success of his 1980 album, ‘The River.’ While the studio wants him to keep the momentum going, he turns towards something much more personal, reflecting on his childhood and the difficult relationship with his father. During this time, he also crosses paths with a woman named Faye Romano, with whom he has a romantic relationship that suffers as Bruce’s mental health takes a turn for the worse. While their dynamic plays an important role in portraying that time of the singer’s life, it is not entirely real.
The Fictional Faye Romano Represents a Difficult Emotional Chapter in Bruce Springsteen’s Life
‘Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere’ presents a true account of a particularly rough time in Bruce Springsteen’s life, but in doing so, the film takes some creative liberties. Certain things portrayed in the movie are fictional, including Bruce’s girlfriend, Faye Romano. The character was created to serve the plot and is not directly based on any of the singer’s ex-girlfriends. However, she is still deeply important to the story because her relationship with Bruce reflects the true state of his romantic relationships. In his 2016 autobiography, ‘Born to Run,’ Springsteen talks about his struggles following the ‘The River’ tour and how it impacted his ability to form a connection with someone.
Having spent months on the road for the tour, he became comfortable with solitude. As he started working on his next album, he was drawn towards the memories of his childhood, particularly the situation with his father. With all that in mind, family became a “terrifying and compelling thought” for him. He didn’t have any male role models when it came to representing a good relationship, which is why he felt that he couldn’t trust himself “to bear the burden of, the responsibility for, other lives, for that all-encompassing love.” He started to think that perhaps family life wasn’t for him. He stated that he started to become uncomfortable with the idea of settling down with someone because he felt it might mirror the relationship between his parents. The thought made him angry, but he also came to accept what could be his reality.
This was why he struggled to form a genuine connection with someone, and “routinely and roughly failed perfectly fine women over and over again.” He explained that, during that time, the women that he dated were great people who really did care for him, but the emotional connection and the idea of being responsible for someone weren’t something that he felt he was made for, at the time. He confessed that every time a relationship ended, he felt “a sad relief from the suffocating claustrophobia” of love. Just as Jeremy Allan White’s Bruce tells Odessa Young’s Faye in the film, the real-life Bruce said he loved as best as he could, but he didn’t have a clue about how to keep a relationship going. This threw him into a cycle that repeated itself until he acknowledged that he needed help to move on.
Faye Romano is a Composite of Bruce Springsteen’s Real-Life Relationships
While Faye Romano is a fictional addition to ‘Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere,’ Odessa Young approached her with an honesty that roots her in realism. The actress referred to Warren Zanes’ 2023 book, ‘Deliver Me From Nowhere,’ which serves as the inspiration for the film, to get a sense of Bruce’s relationships at the time. She also read the singer’s memoir, ‘Born to Run,’ to understand his thought process towards his relationships, and found some references to the women he had dated around that time. While she picked up on some details, she refrained from basing the character on a specific person. She wanted to preserve the privacy of the people mentioned in the books, but at the same time, she also wanted to have a sense of creative freedom while crafting Faye.
Young mainly depended on Scott Cooper’s script and tried to follow his vision of Faye. At the same time, she also brought her own perspective on the character to build her further. She and Cooper had detailed discussions about Faye and her backstory. Young brought up points, such as how the character could be a hockey fan. They also shared certain references that helped bring more gravity to the role. Young revealed that while filming, to get into Faye’s mindset and settle into the era that the film portrays, she listened to a lot of early ’80s artists from New York, like Blondie and Patti Smith. The actress saw the character as someone who has been through enough things in life to know exactly what she wants and is not afraid to get it.
Faye also sees the potential in her relationship with Bruce and what they could actually mean to each other, but at the same time, she doesn’t have any expectations from him, and she certainly doesn’t want to push him into something he is not ready for. Young said that it was while filming the diner scene that takes place towards the end of the film that she truly found the core of Faye and what the relationship truly means to her. Eventually, it was their collaborative process that breathed life into Faye, and the actress revealed that the character turned out to be a bit different than how she was initially written. Still, the character remained grounded in reality and, despite her fictional nature, represents a very important part of Bruce Springsteen’s life at the time.
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