New HBO Show Proves The Weeknd Is No Idol When It Comes to Acting
While in rare cases non-actors have been able to build acting careers over the years, this does not seem to be the case.
With both Succession and Barry TV series ending on May 28, 2023, fans were eagerly awaiting the release of a new HBO series The Idol, which looked quite promising, coming from the creator of Euphoria TV series, Sam Levinson, and starring Lily-Rose Depp and The Weeknd.
However, with the first episode released on June 4, 2023, their hopes were dashed, as the result ended up being rather underwhelming and was immediately criticized for lacking substance, relying instead on shocking elements and outright bad acting from one of the leads.
And the latter brings up the question of whether the acting should be left to, well, professional actors.
The Weeknd, or Abel Makkonen Tesfaye, is a Canadian singer who has gained a lot of fame in recent years with his hit songs and creative clips for them.
But his acting experience is limited to a small appearance in the 2019 film Uncut Gems, where he played himself.
So it is beyond understanding why the other co-creators of the HBO series decided to allow him to star in one of the main roles, as his performance is described by reviewers as "limp" and downright bad.
This whole case can't help but remind us of the comedy sketch with Gary Oldman, in which he slams athletes who imagine themselves to be actors.
It could be argued that there are plenty of singers, rappers or wrestlers who have built acting careers.
But the difference is that all of them have varying degrees of talent that has shown up over the years in supporting roles, like John Cena or Dave Bautista.
Or they've been in fun action movies that don't require brilliant acting skills, like Ludacris in the Fast & Furious movies. But as soon as you cast a person who clearly can't act in a drama TV series that pretends to be serious and meaningful, it all falls apart very quickly.
Fans tend to agree with the critics, pointing out that despite being great at music, The Weeknd never seemed particularly interesting in off-stage interviews, simply lacking the charisma to pull it off.
They also suggest that the musician's ego got the best of him, preventing him from making a rational decision to step down from the role.
However, while Lily-Rose Depp's acting was also criticized, though not to the same extent, her situation is not so simple because she already had acting experience and was praised for it, so it wasn't so clear.
So The Idol proves once again that it is an extremely bad idea to cast a non-actor in a lead role without any prior indication that they have at least a handful of talent. Well, unless this very non-actor is also the show's creator, duh.
Source: Reddit