The Weeknd. Photo by Rich Fury via Getty Images.
In March, Rolling Stone reported on rampant issues with the production of The Idol, a forthcoming HBO drama series created by Abel Tesfaye (The Weeknd) along with his creative partner Reza Fahim and Euphoria director Sam Levinson. The article quoted cast and crew members who said the show had gone “wildly, disgustingly off the rails” and “from satire to the thing it was satirizing.” Elsewhere, they called its story “twisted ‘torture porn,’” “like any rape fantasy that any toxic man would have in the show.”
When Rolling Stone’s article was published, Tesfaye responded flippantly, posting a clip from The Idol in which his character — the charismatic, cult leader-adjacent Tedros — advises the show’s protagonist — the troubled pop star Jocelyn, played by Lily Rose Depp — not to sit for a profile with the publication, calling it irrelevant. In a new Vanity Fair cover story, however, he addressed the allegations head on and explained his initially unserious reaction. “I thought the article was ridiculous,” he told VF’s Dan Adler. “I wanted to give a ridiculous response to it.
In the new interview, Tesfaye said he particularly took issue with Rolling Stone’s reporting on allegations that the show’s split with its original director Amy Seimetz last year was anything other than amicable. (Sources told Deadline at the time that Seimetz had been forced out due to Tesfaye’s worry that the show was moving too far into a “female perspective.”) He told Adler that the reasons for her departure were purely logistical. “I actually really loved working with Amy, and I’m sure she’s reading all this being like, ‘Why am I being thrown into this?,’” he said, adding that “shows get reshot every day.”
Tesfaye said he further objected to what he perceived as the Rolling Stone article’s subtext: “These are rapists trying to make a rape fantasy.” Defending the show’s themes of sexual manipulation and subjugation, he told Adler he was attempting to confront the bleak realities of celebrity, not satisfy his own personal urges. “Hollywood is a dark place,” he said, “which makes for great art.”
Depp — who had told Rolling Stone that she “really and truly… never felt more like my opinions and my ideas or my input was more valued” than she had while working on The Idol — expressed a similar frustration to the public’s premature evaluations of the show. “I think it’s interesting that people have so much to say about the show already and they haven’t even seen it,” she told VF.
The Idol premiered at Cannes Film Festival in April and is scheduled for a June 4 launch on HBO Max. Tesfaye told Interview Magazine last month that the show’s soundtrack was “inspired by The Wall and Purple Rain,” and subsequently shared a new song from the show in collaboration with Future. Last week, he told W Magazine that he was working on his final album as The Weeknd. The statement was not addressed in today’s VF cover story, but he changed his name on both Twitter and Instagram from his stage name to his birth name on Monday (May 15), though his handle remains @theweeknd on both platforms.
