The Weeknd Says ‘The Idol’ Was Created to Be ‘Fun, To Make People Laugh, Piss Some People Off’

If Abel “The Weeknd” Tesfaye and Euphoria creator Sam Levinson aimed to operation nan cookware pinch their upcoming HBO bid The Idol, see it ngo accomplished. The imaginative duo made a scatter astatine nan Cannes Film Festival this week pinch their buzzed-about bid chronicling nan value of popular stardom acknowledgment to what Variety described arsenic nan copious amounts of “on-screen nudity, bodily fluids and Hollywood sycophants” successful nan first 2 (out of five) episodes that screened astatine nan arena typically focused connected movies.

At a Cannes property convention connected Tuesday (May 23) aft nan premiere, The Weeknd (who now goes by his commencement name) said he and Levinson had a extremity of stirring nan cookware and creating “something special, thing fun, to make group laugh, piss immoderate group off.” Star Lily-Rose Depp besides defended nan agelong sprout and pushed backmost connected rumors of mayhem connected nan set, saying, “It’s ever a small sad and disheartening to spot mean, mendacious things said astir personification you attraction about. It wasn’t reflective of my experience.”

Before anyone sewage their eyes connected nan show, Rolling Stone posted an explosive communicative successful March based connected 13 unnamed sources who described an allegedly chaotic group drowning successful ballooning budgets and endless book re-writes that contributed to a task nan mag described arsenic “torture porn.”

Levinson took connected those reports dead-on during nan presser, saying, “When my woman publication maine nan article, I looked astatine her and I said, ‘I deliberation we’re astir to person nan biggest show of nan summer.’” The showrunner readily copped to making a task that is “provocative. It’s not mislaid connected us.” As for nan claims successful nan article, Levinson said, “It felt wholly overseas to me. My only flimsy grievance is they intentionally omitted thing that didn’t fresh their narrative. We’ve seen a batch of that recently.”

The show focuses connected Rose Depp’s Jocelyn, a popular prima dealing pinch a psychotic break pursuing nan decease of her mother, who is struggling to get a caller medium and circuit going erstwhile she visits a sleazy Hollywood nine and meets Tesfaye’s character, Tedros, a cult leader who has lascivious ideas astir rebooting nan singer’s career.

Borrowing a page from Kanye West’s building book, Tesfaye said he wanted to make a “dark, twisted fantasy” astir nan euphony industry… to return everything I cognize astir it and heighten it.” As for nan reportedly generous amounts of nudity, Levinson said “we unrecorded successful a very sexualized world… nan power of pornography is beardown successful nan psyche of young people. We spot this successful popular music.”

Depp appeared to agree, calling her characteristic a “born and bred performer” whose predominant nudity is an important portion of Jocelyn’s root story. That extends to each facet of her life, not conscionable her master life,” she said. “The measurement she dresses is trying to show you thing each nan time. The occasional bareness of nan characteristic physically mirrors nan bareness we get to spot emotionally.”

And while nan aviator section reportedly references nan white-hot spotlight often shined connected young, female euphony stars specified arsenic Britney Spears, Levinson was adamant that Jocelyn was not straight inspired by nan troubled real-life popular idol. “We’re not trying to show a communicative astir immoderate peculiar popular star,” he said. “We’re looking much astatine really nan world perceives popular stars and nan unit it puts connected that individual.”

In a review, The Hollywood Reporter said nan bid is “more regressive than transgressive,” pinch a pointed bottommost statement takeaway that The Idol comes disconnected arsenic an “older, moreover much stylized type of Euphoria‘s 2nd season,” and simply “tries excessively hard.” The tract besides noted, however, that, arsenic is often nan lawsuit among enthusiastic Cannes audiences, Monday’s premiere elicited a “standard-measure 5-minute opinionated ovation” and what it described arsenic “polite applause.”