Abel “the Weeknd” Tesfaye responded to Rolling Stone‘s report claiming his highly-anticipated HBO present, The Idol, “has gone wildly, disgustingly off the rails.” However the famous person didn’t refute a few of the article’s disturbing claims — like that he and co-creator, Euphoria‘s Sam Levinson, are making a collection depicting “sexual torture porn” — however as a substitute, fired off a video calling the publication uncool. Whereas sources inform Yahoo Leisure that a few of the content material within the RS story “is fairly correct,” others paint a unique image of what is been happening behind-the-scenes.
On Wednesday afternoon, Tesfaye tweeted a clip from The Idol of his and Lily-Rose Depp’s characters calling RS “irrelevant.” Within the collection, the singer performs a modern-day cult chief named Tedros whereas Depp is Jocelyn, his pop star love curiosity. The clip reveals them speaking to an agent sort (performed by Dan Levy) who’s making an attempt to persuade Jocelyn to shoot a canopy for the journal.
“I really feel prefer it may be form of previous its prime,” says Jocelyn.
“Yeah, no person cares about Rolling Stone,” provides Tedros.
Tesfaye, who has over 17 million followers on Twitter, tagged RS and wrote, “Did we upset you?”
Depp shared the identical video on her Instagram account.
So, what precisely obtained the actors riled up? Lets unpack all of the drama surrounding The Idol.
Rolling Stone claims The Idol is in turmoil — and the content material is troubling
On Wednesday morning, RS posted its story “The Idol: How HBO’s Subsequent Euphoria Grew to become Twisted ‘Torture Porn.'” The article featured interviews with 13 members of the present’s solid and crew, all of whom remained nameless. They dished in regards to the alleged havoc that is ensued since Levinson took the reins from director Amy Seimetz throughout a shakeup final spring.
“It was, let’s simply say, a s***present,” one particular person claimed.
Whereas the article detailed how the manufacturing’s been affected by reshoots and rewrites, inflicting severe delays, the disturbing accusations contain the shift in content material.
4 sources alleged Levinson’s created a degrading love story that a number of crew members discovered offensive. Seimetz’s model was extra “a few troubled starlet falling sufferer to a predatory trade determine and preventing to reclaim her personal company.” Now, one manufacturing member claimed: “It was like several rape fantasy that any poisonous man would have within the present — after which the lady comes again for extra as a result of it makes her music higher.”
Here is one of many extra regarding excerpts from the story:
At varied factors, Levinson’s scripts contained disturbing sexual and bodily violent scenes between Depp and Tesfaye’s characters, three sources accustomed to the matter declare. In a single draft episode, there allegedly was a scene the place Tesfaye bashes in Depp’s face, and her character smiles and asks to be overwhelmed extra, giving Tesfaye an erection. (This scene was by no means shot, the supply says.) One other proposed state of affairs was for Depp to hold an egg in her vagina and if she dropped or cracked the egg, Tesfaye’s character would refuse to ‘rape’ her — which despatched Depp’s character right into a spiral, begging him to ‘rape’ her as a result of she believed he was the important thing to her success. (This scene additionally was not filmed as a result of manufacturing could not discover a solution to realistically shoot the scene with out having Depp bodily insert the egg, one other supply explains.)
Sure, The Idol has been “fairly chaotic”
One supply with data of manufacturing points over the previous two years acknowledges to Yahoo the set has been “fairly chaotic” at occasions, inflicting some solid and crew members to develop “more and more annoyed.” Yahoo spoke with two individuals who referred to as the RS article “fairly correct” with one emphasizing, “Yeah, it has been a s***present at occasions.”
Nonetheless, a community supply pushes again and tells Yahoo that whereas a few of what has been written for the present “pushes boundaries,” it is “unfair” to categorize the present as “sexual torture porn.”
“Certain, it makes a superb headline, however there is not any manner all of those 13 ‘sources’ have seen any form of completed product,” the insider declares.
This is not the primary time Levinson’s confronted criticism
Final 12 months, amid Euphoria‘s wildly profitable second season, Levinson discovered himself the topic of scrutiny as critics claimed the present featured an excessive amount of gratuitous nudity options youngsters. Days on set have been purportedly lengthy and exhausting. It took two years for viewers to get a second season because the course of season appeared to alter rather a lot in actual time. Even Levinson has admitted his “writing course of is fairly weird.”
Actress Barbie Ferreira, whose physique constructive character Kat was a giant a part of Euphoria‘s first season, allegedly “stormed off” set and Levinson reduce her display screen time after they disagreed about her Kat’s arc. Actress Sydney Sweeney advised a reporter she needed to push again on some pointless shirtless scenes and visitor star Minka Kelly confirmed she requested Levinson to alter a scripted nude scene as a result of she didn’t really feel “snug” with it.
The Weeknd “is completely satisfied” with Levinson and the brand new course of The Idol
A supply tells Yahoo there’s “no battle” between Tesfaye and Levinson. In reality, the musician thinks Levinson’s imaginative and prescient for his or her present is best than the course Seimetz was taking The Idol.
That is considerably according to a Deadline report from April, when indicators of inner battle first spilled out into the general public, that claimed Tesfaye needed a artistic overhaul as he felt the present was leaning an excessive amount of right into a “feminine perspective.” Nonetheless, the insider near manufacturing tells Yahoo “it is not precisely correct” to categorize the problems he had like that.
“The present continues to be very a lot about [Lily-Rose’s] character and he or she’s been an integral a part of the artistic course of,” the supply provides.
Lily-Rose Depp is talking out
Other than sharing the clip, the actress issued a press release in assist of Levinson amid the RS drama.
“Sam is, for thus many causes, the very best director I’ve ever labored with. By no means have I felt extra supported or revered in a artistic area, my enter and opinions extra valued,” she tells Yahoo. “Working with Sam is a real collaboration in each manner — it issues to him, greater than something, not solely what his actors take into consideration the work, however how we really feel performing it. He hires individuals whose work he esteems and has at all times created an atmosphere during which I felt seen, heard, and appreciated.”
HBO is standing by The Idol, too
A spokesperson for the community issued the next assertion to Yahoo:
The creators and producers of The Idol have been working exhausting to create one in every of HBO’s most fun and provocative unique applications. The preliminary method on the present and manufacturing of the early episodes, sadly, didn’t meet HBO requirements so we selected to make a change. All through the method, the artistic group has been dedicated to making a secure, collaborative, and mutually respectful working atmosphere, and final 12 months, the group made artistic adjustments they felt have been in the very best curiosity of each the manufacturing and the solid and crew. We stay up for sharing The Idol with audiences quickly.
And Rolling Stone is standing by its report
Editor-in-chief Noah Shachtman replied on to Tesfaye’s Did we upset you?” tweet.
