“Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere” Location Manager Sarah Brady Stack on Finding The Boss’s New Jersey
For writer-director Scott Cooper’s making-of-an-album drama about one of America’s most enduring rock icons, finding the ideal location was a no-brainer, since Bruce Springsteen’s image and identity are inseparable from the Garden State. “Springsteen is like the New Jersey guy. If you’re gonna make a movie about him, it has to be in New Jersey, which is a character in its own in this film,” says the location manager for Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere, Sarah Brady Stack (Maestro, 3 Body Problem). “He has influenced so much around the state. Asbury Park was significantly revitalized and shaped around him. So much of New Jersey is shaped by him, and so much of his work is shaped by New Jersey. So, I don’t think you could’ve shot this anywhere else. At least I don’t think he would’ve been happy about it, and you would’ve lost some of what made him who he is,” she adds.
With terrain ranging from dense woods and mountains to beaches and cityscapes alike, New Jersey is a great location, particularly for stories set in the 1970s and 1980s. Charting the year between late 1981 and 1982, the 20th Century Studios film takes us behind the excruciating process — both emotionally and technically — as Springsteen (a gut-wrenching portrayal by Jeremy Allen White of The Bear fame) digs deep within himself to birth the famed 1982 album, “Nebraska,” with pivotal support from longtime manager and loyal friend, Jon Landau (Succession’s Jeremy Strong). The majority of the film was shot at historically accurate locations, including the boardwalk and convention hall in Asbury Park, the Stone Pony concert venue, and the Power Station recording studio where “Born in the U.S.A.” was recorded in 1982.
With an already robust production incentive program, New Jersey recently expanded its credit for studio partners from 35% to 40% of qualified expenses and increased the above-the-line wages cap by 50% to $750,000 per individual, luring a myriad of productions to the state, including Apple TV’s Severance and Netflix’s Happy Gilmore 2. The Springsteen drama spent 31 days filming throughout 14 municipalities, spending almost $42 million in the state on 500 cast and crew members, including Brady Stack’s 15-plus team of location scouts.
Brady Stack recently spoke to The Credits ahead of the film’s release.
How long were you on the project?
I worked for three months of pre-production through the shoot. I started two weeks after [assistant location manager] J.P. Varady began. He’s got an amazing eye.
How big is your team? Are they all based in the Tri-State area?
Yes, everyone’s based between New York and New Jersey. We had three assistant location managers, three scouts, four location assistants, a bunch of additionals, and two unit P.A.s.
The film begins in the autumn of 1981. I used to live in New England and the dazzling colors during peak foliage always warms my heart.
There’s nothing more beautiful than foliage in the Northeast; it never gets old.
It really gives this story that melancholy beauty as we follow Bruce down the spiral of his emotional crisis.
We wanted to capture all that with historically accurate locations, including the [Hell’s Kitchen recording studio] Power Station, the CBS Building in midtown Manhattan, and all over New Jersey. Many things have changed, and some of the places don’t exist anymore, or have been modernized to a point where they wouldn’t fit. But we went out of our way to make it as historically accurate as possible and include the locations where these events took place.
What was your research process like?
We did our own research, but the Bruce Springsteen Archives & Center for American Music group was instrumental. A lot came from Springsteen himself — he has a vault with records, photos, notes, and everything you could imagine.
Your team was given access to his personal vault?
Our production designer [Stefania Cella] was, and she came up with mood boards for the tone and look of the film. Then, my team went out and created that world.
I’m always fascinated by how location scouts find the nooks and crannies that really make the story shine. How do you do it?
We just talk to the locals to uncover these hidden gems. You talk to enough people, you’ll find the person who knows the area the best, and they’re usually more than happy to take you around and show you all the places that you might not otherwise find.
Let’s go over some of the iconic locations featured in the film.
Asbury Park is where he kind of got his start. We also shot at Meadowlands Arena, formerly called the Izod Center, where Bruce was the first musician to perform in 1981 when it opened. Although in the movie, it stood in for different arenas in Cincinnati and L.A.
What is the process for securing permits and filming at these large venues, parks, and public locations?
New Jersey is an amazing place to film. Our team handles the permits, deals with the different government agencies, and contracts with the locations. I think it’s also interesting to talk about the locations that aren’t supposed to be in New Jersey. For instance, when Bruce goes on a cross-country road trip. We talked about shooting some of that across the country, but ultimately decided the most efficient and cost-effective way was to do it here. We recreated parts of Texas and some of the South right here in New Jersey. When they went to the El Paso County Fair in Harding Township, New Jersey, the corn fields by the “mansion on a hill” were in the same neighborhood.
It’s interesting that New Jersey stood in for parts of the country that you may not expect to look similar enough.
For us, that was more of the fun, the challenge of recreating something that was supposed to be somewhere else.
For the centerpiece location, Bruce’s rental house in Colts Neck was where he painstakingly carved out the album “Nebraska,” as he took a deep dive into his childhood traumas. Where was that?
We took some artistic license here — the actual rental house didn’t really stand out and has changed a lot. So, we decided on something that conveyed more of the spirit and his emotional state at the time. Bruce is a down-to-earth guy, so it needed to be elevated but still humble. We got very lucky in Mountain Lakes.
How did you settle on the house?
This lovely couple raised their children there and meticulously preserved it from the ’70s. It truly felt like a time capsule when you walked in the front door. There was this electric charge from all the love that’d been put into it. It felt like magic when you walked in — everyone, including Scott Cooper, felt it once we saw it: This is THE house. It was just meant to be, kind of like fate. Thankfully, the family was on board with filming.
Was any of it actually filmed in Colts Neck?
No. When Bruce lived there, it was much more rural. Now, it’s very developed with suburban complexes. But for the film, we needed a rustic, rural feel.
Many of the emotional demons that anchor Bruce’s writing in the “Nebraska” album came from his turbulent childhood. Where did you find that house in the flashback sequences?
We had a lot of trouble with that house in Orange, New Jersey. We needed the right look and feel, something that wasn’t too modernized, humble, and conveyed his blue-collar background—something sad but also hopeful.
How many places do you typically have to scout before landing on the right one?
There were at least 10 for the rental house, which we found pretty quickly. We scouted more than we needed to, just to make sure. I think it was the third house we scouted. Once we saw it, we were pretty sure that was it.
What about his childhood home?
I think we scouted 20-30 houses. 10 houses aren’t that much. If you try between five and 10 places for one location, you’re doing pretty well. Anything over 30 is really struggling. We got into that with his rental house in L.A., later in the movie, which we found in Montclair, New Jersey, even though the exterior shots were filmed in L.A. We needed something nicer than the one in Colts Neck, but that still feels humble and different enough. It’s easy to get too extravagant because by then, he’s a superstar on the rise, but that’s just not him. Finding a balance is much harder than you’d think, especially for that time period. We scouted roughly 50 houses for that. New Jersey is an amazing place to work, as is New York and the East Coast, which offer a variety of looks and feels and personalities. You can find pretty much anything you’re looking for out here.
Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere is in theaters on October 24.
Featured image: Jeremy Allen White as Bruce Springsteen in 20th Century Studios’ SPRINGSTEEN: DELIVER ME FROM NOWHERE. Photo courtesy of 20th Century Studios. © 2025 20th Century Studios. All Rights Reserved.
