The show is still days away from arriving on HBO, but the months leading up to the release have made “The Idol” a hot-button topic to discuss. And most of the discourse surrounds the behind-the-scenes drama that plagued the production. A loss of a showrunner. Reshooting the entire show. Reports of massive overspending. And now, after a debut at Cannes, Sam Levinson, one of the creators of the series, is opening up about all of the reports of on-set discord.
Speaking at Cannes, after the premiere of “The Idol,” Sam Levinson, the co-writer, director, and co-creator of the series, talked about the infamous Rolling Stone article that detailed a bunch of allegations about the series. Most of what was said pointed the finger at Levinson and his star/co-creator Abel “The Weeknd” Tesfaye, describing how they were allegedly adding gratuitous sex to the series, as well as removing a lot of the feminist angle that was present during the initial production. If you want all of the details, you can find them, but suffice to say, the article and accusations presented a tumultuous set and painted Levinson and Tesfaye in a very bad light.
As you might expect, these allegations were denied by Levinson during the press conference.
“We know we’re making a show that is provocative. It’s not lost on us,” Levinson said. “When my wife read me the article, I looked at her and I said, ‘I think we’re about to have the biggest show of the summer.’”
He added, “In terms of the specifics of what was in [the article], It felt completely foreign to me. But I know who I am… They’re free to write whatever they want. My only slight grievance is they intentionally omitted anything that didn’t fit their narrative. But I think we’ve seen a lot of that lately.”
Lost in a lot of this discussion, especially with the interviews, is just how Lily-Rose Depp, the star of the series, feels about the article and accusations. While Levinson and Tesfaye receive the brunt of the negative discussion, the article painted a situation where Depp is seemingly finding her character completely changed and losing her agency, while also ramping up the sexual nature of the series. In 2023, with an emphasis on making sure women feel comfortable on set, these accusations seemed to put Depp in an awkward, and possibly, unsafe situation. This is something that Depp denied.
“It’s always a little sad and disheartening to see mean false things said about someone you care about,” she said. “It wasn’t reflective at all of my experience.”
The early reviews from the show seem to back up a lot of the preconceived notions of “The Idol.” The show is very sexually charged with a lot of nudity and graphic scenes. And while some are praising aspects of the show, others (like our review) don’t seem to like much of anything in the show.
“The Idol” debuts on HBO on June 4.