Sam Levinson defends ‘The Idol’ against reports of on-set turmoil: ‘It just felt completely foreign to me’
Following the Cannes Film Festival premiere of the HBO series “The Idol,” co-creator Sam Levinson and star Lily-Rose Depp defended the already-controversial series against reports that its production had run amok.
“It’s always a little sad and disheartening to see these mean, false things about somebody that you really care about and that you know is not like that,” Depp said during the show’s Cannes press conference on Tuesday.
Back in March, before HBO dated “The Idol” for its June 4 debut, Rolling Stone published a report that alleged the production had been a “shitshow” with a budget that spun out of control after Levinson and co-creator and star Abel “The Weeknd” Tesfaye decided to reconfigure the show while filming. That decision led to the exit of original series director Amy Seimetz amid a major creative overhaul in the spring of 2022.
“I went into ‘The Idol’ thinking that this might be an interesting collaboration, but I left it pretty convinced that [Levinson] is not quite collaborative,” a source claimed to Rolling Stone. “It’s really frustrating seeing Amy doing her damn best to turn around some kind of product that she can be somewhat proud of to HBO… and then [for HBO] to turn around and have Sam get essentially a blank check to turn it into ‘Euphoria Season Three with pop stars’ is extremely, extremely frustrating.”
HBO and Depp quickly pushed back on that characterization at the time. “The creators and producers of ‘The Idol’ have been working hard to create one of HBO’s most exciting and provocative original programs. The initial approach on the show and production of the early episodes, unfortunately, did not meet HBO standards so we chose to make a change,” a rep for HBO said in a statement. “Throughout the process, the creative team has been committed to creating a safe, collaborative, and mutually respectful working environment, and last year, the team made creative changes they felt were in the best interest of both the production and the cast and crew. We look forward to sharing ‘The Idol’ with audiences soon.”
Depp, meanwhile, called Levinson – who also created the blockbuster HBO show “Euphoria” – the “best director” she’d ever worked with. “Never have I felt more supported or respected in a creative space, my input, and opinions more valued. Working with Sam is a true collaboration in every way – it matters to him, more than anything, not only what his actors think about the work, but how we feel performing it,” she added. “He hires people whose work he esteems and has always created an environment in which I felt seen, heard, and appreciated.”
Speaking at the Cannes Film Festival on Tuesday, Levinson said he found the Rolling Stone report “completely foreign” to his experience. “We know we are making a show that is provocative. It is not lost on us, but it’s an odd one,” Levinson said. “Because when my wife read me the article. I told her ‘I think we are about to have the biggest show of the summer.’ In terms of the specifics of what was in it. it just felt completely foreign to me. But I know who I am… People can write whatever they want. If I have a slight objection, it’s that they intentionally omitted anything that didn’t fit their narrative. But I think we have seen a lot of that lately.”
This isn’t the first time Levinson has defended the show. Speaking to W Magazine as part of an interview with Tesfaye published earlier this month, the filmmaker said the creative revamp was necessary and that quitting the show altogether wasn’t an option.
“It was a dream that we had together, and we had to see it through,” Levinson said of him and Tesfaye. “If we were going to reshoot from the beginning, I knew it had to be for less money. Sitting in Abel’s house, looking around at the 40,000 square feet, I said, ‘It’s stunning here—you can’t buy production design like this. What if we shoot it here?’ Abel put down his drink and said, ‘Do you have insurance?’ I said yes. And he said, ‘I’m okay with it.’”
Tesfaye also previously defended the series and its creative changes. “When everyone around me is worried, I get very still. But I did panic when I lost my voice. I had to rest and reflect and think about The Weeknd and Tedros [his character on ‘The Idol’] and all that had happened with the show. I realized that I need to know that I’ve made the best version of whatever I’m making,” he said to W Magazine. “It was a challenge to redo ‘The Idol,’ and, in truth, I sacrificed my health and home to make it work. So, let’s say it comes out and it’s fucking horrible. I still know I did my absolute best…. From what I’ve seen, the show is great. Everything is a risk: When you’ve done the best you can, I would call that a happy ending. And I got my voice back.”
“The Idol” premiered at the Cannes Film Festival on Monday and its first two episodes were met with a five-minute standing ovation and online chatter about its explicit material. “Think ‘Succession’ meets ‘Entourage,’ with a sloppy dose of ‘Black Swan,’” Eric Kohn wrote for Indiewire.
Here’s New York Times writer Kyle Buchanan with his own bit of critique on the show: “‘The Idol,’ or 50 SHADES OF TESFAYE: A Pornhub-homepage odyssey starring Lily-Rose Depp’s areolas and The Weeknd’s greasy rat tail. Love that this will help launch the HBO Max rebrand, should slot nicely next to ‘House Hunters’!”
“The Idol” premieres on HBO and the newly christened Max service starting on June 4.