Amid The Idol Controversy, Lily-Rose Depp Drops Eerie Hints About The Weeknd's Behaviour on Set
So far, it seems that The Weeknd is not acting, but just being himself.
The Idol had its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival on May 22. Film critics did not like the series at all: it was condemned for its abundance of cruelty, propaganda of violence, an excess of unnecessary sex scenes, and even compared to pornography.
Some felt that The Idol was bad simply because it was tasteless, boring and full of clichés.
And the same series became the first major role for Abel Tesfaye, better known as The Weeknd. The musician played the lead role – the club entrepreneur Tedros, who also leads a secret sect.
Most fans did not appreciate either the character of Abel or his acting. Many agree that the character turned out to be simply repulsive and annoying, so annoying that you just want to skip all the scenes with him.
However, it turns out that not only the singer's character, but also Abel himself had some questionable vibes.
In an interview, lead actress Lily-Rose Depp admitted that she avoided the singer on set:
"Well, sometimes when Abel would get — I don't want to reveal too much about where Abel's character goes, but when he would be in full Tedros mode sometimes, I would steer clear of him."
The Weeknd not only played the male lead, but also acted as one of the writers and producers of the project. The singer has a little screenwriting experience – he worked on one of the episodes of American Dad.
Also, many have already heard that the show originally had a different concept that was eventually changed by Sam Levinson and Abel.
The first version of Idol was directed by Amy Seimetz, and her work was 80% complete.
Abel didn't like that Seimetz filmed the series from a "female" point of view – from the point of view of Jocelyn, the character of Lily-Rose Depp. He replaced her as producer with Sam Levinson, the creator of Euphoria.
If the singer didn't like Amy Seimetz, The Idol crew didn't like the replacement. Most of the delays and reworking were simply due to the change of director.
One of The Idol team members admitted that they had signed on for a completely different project – a dark satire on the world of show business.
As a result, the series turned into exactly what it was originally intended to make fun of. Many people involved in the creation of the show left after Tesfaye's actions and the arrival of Sam Levinson.
Source: Entertainment Weekly