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Odessa Young delivers a breakout performance opposite Jeremy Allen White in the 2025 biopic Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere. The Staircase alum appears in a romantic subplot as a single mother named Faye who forms a connection with Bruce Springsteen during a pivotal point in his life. The Scott Cooper–directed drama is set against Springsteen’s battles with his record label over the creation of his acclaimed 1982 album, Nebraska. “It was very emotional [being offered this movie],” Young admitted on Good Morning America in October 2025. “I blacked out immediately when it happened but I know there were tears.” Anyone who sees Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere might walk away from the film thinking Faye is one of the E Street Band leader’s real lost loves, though the truth is much more complex. Keep scrolling for a look at Young’s character in Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere. Is Faye from ‘Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere’ Based on a Real Person? Not quite. Faye is an original character created for Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere, but she is loosely inspired by some of the rocker’s real relationships. In the movie, Springsteen (White) meets and forms a connection with the waitress and single mother after one of his legendary concerts in Asbury Park, New Jersey. The relationship coincides with a period of huge emotional and professional upheaval for Springsteen as he recorded his bleak 1982 album, Nebraska. While Springsteen grows fond of both Faye and her young daughter in Deliver Me From Nowhere, his career ambitions and struggles with his own mental health ultimately drive the couple apart. “Faye, she’s kind of an amalgamation of some of the people in Bruce’s life that he had romantic experiences with during this time,” Young explained on Good Morning America in October 2025. “There’s a couple of clues in Warren Zanes’ book, which our film is based on, and there are a couple of clues in Bruce’s own memoir. I didn’t have anyone to kind of look [to for inspiration], anyone specific to kind of model myself on.” She added, “I really just got lucky with Scott Cooper’s amazing script. It’s very detailed with that character. Scott and Bruce had a lot of conversations about who Faye was supposed to be. I kind of just approached it like any other fiction movie character.” Deliver Me From Nowhere’s romantic subplot does have parallels to Springsteen’s real life, as he meets Faye at the iconic Stone Pony music venue — where the musician actually met his future wife Patti Scialfa in the early 1980s. Unlike with Faye, Springsteen and Scialfa’s early connection was rooted in their shared musical careers, as the guitarist was invited to join the E Street Band in 1984. What Has Odessa Young Said About Playing Faye in ‘Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere’? While many of the characters in Deliver Me From Nowhere are based directly on people in Springsteen’s inner circle, Young explained to Stylist that she wanted to respect the “privacy” of the women who may have inspired the creation of Faye. “It wasn’t expected of me to model this person on something real, so I had a lot of creative freedom with Faye,” she said. Young recalled that Springsteen was on the set of Deliver Me From Nowhere “a lot,” though she stressed that he was always “respectful” of the actors’ processes. “He didn’t necessarily give me any messages [of advice] but he was always extremely supportive about certain things we were doing and certain scenes that we were making,” she said. The role was especially meaningful for Young because she comes from a family of massive Springsteen fans — so much so that her dad even once hosted a “Boss”-themed trivia contest. “It’s such a cliché to say, but it is a dream come true. I’ve been listening to Bruce’s music since I can remember,” she explained. “I was born into a family who just listened to him all the time, so to be able to be a part of this … it kinda feels like the reason I started acting even, was to do something like this.” What Has Bruce Springsteen Said About His Real Dating Life and 2 Marriages? Springsteen had relationships with artist Karon Bihari and actress Joyce Hyser early in his career. In the mid-1980s, he grew close to Scialfa after inviting her to join the E Street Band but suddenly married another woman — actress Julianne Phillips — in May 1985 after a seven-month courtship. The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee’s relationship with Phillips drew media criticism for their age gap, as Springsteen was 11 years older than Phillips. Springsteen acknowledged in his 2016 memoir that he started to distrust Phillips because of his own insecurities. “One evening, while I sat across from my beautiful wife in an upscale Los Angeles eatery, a conversation formed silently inside my head. There, as we politely chatted by candlelight, hand in hand, a part of me tried to convince myself that she was simply using me to further her career or to get … something,” he recalled. “Nothing could’ve been farther from the truth. Julianne loved me and didn’t have an exploitive or malicious bone in her body. Inside, I knew that, but I was out where the buses don’t run and couldn’t center myself around the truth.” Springsteen started seeing Scialfa as his marriage broke down, leading to Phillips finally filing for divorce in 1988. The musician caused a major scandal when he decided to move in with Scialfa shortly after splitting with Phillips. “It’s a strange society that assumes it has the right to tell people whom they should love and whom they shouldn’t,” he told The Advocate in 1995 about the controversy. “But the truth is, I basically ignored the entire thing as much as I could. I said, ‘Well, all I know is, this feels real, and maybe I have got a mess going here in some fashion, but that’s life.’” Springsteen and Scialfa welcomed their first baby, son Evan, in July 1990 and tied the knot the following year at their Los Angeles home. They also share a daughter, Jessica Rae, born in December 1991, and their youngest son, Samuel, born in January 1994. During a 2017 interview with Variety, Springsteen addressed the ways he and Scialfa were able to separate their marriage from their onstage dynamic. “We’ve kind of developed natural boundaries. Some places we have a more professional approach, like if I walk into the studio while she’s working, I have certain boundaries where if she requests my opinion or asks for my help, I give it on a very professional level,” he explained. “When she comes on stage with the E Street Band, she’s an E Street band member, and when we walk off stage, we’re husband and wife.”
