Bruce Springsteen claims it was a “fluke” that his song Streets of Philadelphia won an Oscar.
Written in Days
Springsteen took home the Academy Award for Best Original Song. The track was featured in the 1993 movie Philadelphia, which starred Tom Hanks. He feels that he was fortunate to claim the gong, as the track was written in “a couple of days.”
Bruce spoke to his friend Bono at the Tribeca Film Festival recently. He said, “It really was because Jonathan Demme called me up and said, ‘I need a rock song for the movie I just made.’ And he told me a little bit about the film, and he sent me just an opening two minutes or so of it.”
“I tried to write him a rock song when I just couldn’t. So I went next door, and I had a little synthesizer and a little drum machine and (in) a couple of days I wrote the song.”
The 76-year-old rocker added, “I sent to him (Demme) and he roughed it into the film, and then I sent him a real version, and he threw that out and kept the rough version that I sent him, and then we won the Oscar.”
“Activist” in His Career
During the conversation, Bono hailed Springsteen for being an “activist” during his career. Bono explained how Springsteen’s involvement in Philadelphia typifies this.
The Born To Run artist replied, “It was really one of those things. If you do good things, good things happen. So Jonathan Demme, who is deeply missed and was a wonderful, wonderful man, incredible filmmaker, kind of invited me into his film and I guess we lucked out.”
Hanks Thoughts on the Film
Hanks won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of AIDS-stricken lawyer Andrew Beckett in the film. However, he insists that he wouldn’t take the part of a gay man were it offered to him today.
He talked about the situation with The New York Times magazine in 2022. “Let’s address, ‘Could a straight man do what I did in Philadelphia now?’ No, and rightly so.”
“The whole point of Philadelphia was don’t be afraid. One of the reasons people weren’t afraid of that movie is that I was playing a gay man. We’re beyond that now, and I don’t think people would accept the inauthenticity of a straight guy playing a gay guy.”