‘The Idol’: The Weeknd, Sam Levinson and Lily Rose-Depp on Their Graphic Pop Drama

Last month, director Sam Levinson and stars Abel Tesfaye (aka The Weeknd) and Lily-Rose Depp visited the Lumiere Theater at the Cannes Film Festival to watch the first two episodes of their show, The Idol. We had a premiere screening. ’ and a standing ovation. The lights hadn’t dimmed yet, but in Cannes, where accolades and accolades are cheap, glitz and celebrity thrive. By the time the screening was over, the excited crowd had risen again, and critics said,Regressive“”chauvinistic“”crawl on the skin” and “disastrous disaster“

“The Idol” follows chart-topping pop star Jocelyn (Depp) as she prepares for her comeback after suffering a mental breakdown. Surrounded by handlers such as Hank Azaria, Troye Sivan, Jane Adams, Davine Joy Randolph and horror film impresario Eli Roth, Jocelyn makes a lot of money for a lot of selfish people. . One night at a dance club in Los Angeles, she meets Tedros (Tesfaye), a mysterious, smooth-spoken mouse-like figure. Eventually, she invites him to her mansion, they have a heated discussion in the shadows, and a mystery takes root: what the hell is she doing? this Man?

“The Idol,” produced by Levinson, Tesfaye and Reza Fahim, premiered on Sunday and was already a hot target when it hit Cannes.of April 2022, the information hit that original director Amy Seimetz had left the show during a creative overhaul. For some reason, HBO’s Braintrust decided to increase the show’s notoriety. teaserreleased three months later, this article referred to Levinson and Tesfaye as “sick and twisted heartBehind ‘Hollywood’s meanest love story’. But unwanted attention came in a terrible way this March. Rolling Stone article Among other accusations, Levinson’s version was accused of being a “rape fantasy”. The teaser has since disappeared from HBO’s YouTube channel.

Levinson, Tesfaye and other “idol” collaborators have vigorously defended the show and its creators. “The process on set was incredibly creative,” Azaria said at the conference. Press conference The day after the Cannes premiere, Adams nodded. “I’ve been on many dysfunctional sets, believe me,” Azaria continued. “This was quite the opposite.”