The first two episodes of the miniseries The Idol with Lily-Rose Depp and Abel “The Weeknd” Tesfaye were screened Monday evening on the Croisette preceded by a scent of scandal. But the festival-goers present in the room behaved well and warmly applauded the team at the end of the screening. They were still a few to react on social networks.
“Sorry (no) but the series The Idol with The Weeknd and Lily-Rose Depp is probably one of the most toxic and disgusting out there, writes Luna on his Twitter account. In big 2023, there are series advocating rape. The people who are going to watch and the actors who have performed, you are rubbish. ” Conversely, Charley James does not hide his enthusiasm: “Sam Levinson is doing his Showgirls (Verhoeven is quoted) adapted to the world of pop, by transcribing all its vulgos and masculinist side, he also writes on Twitter. Lily-Rose Depp carries each scene, facing the 50 shades of TheWeeknd”.
In question, in the first place, the sulphurous character embodied by Abel “The Weeknd” Tesfaye, whom he largely contributed to imagining and scripting. “This character has nothing to do with me, defends the young artist. I’ve never even met such in the music industry, thankfully. Because this character is Dracula. “As for the shooting, described as” chaotic “and problematic by the magazine RollingStone, the accusation was immediately denied by Lily-Rose Depp. “There were intimacy coordinators for the sexual scenes, she confirms when the magazine suggested otherwise. And anyway, I didn’t experience it like that at all. “Remains, on the screen, the basic subject which questions: the exploitation of a manipulated pop idol. “We know that our show is there to provoke”, recognizes the director Sam Levinson who, to justify the accumulation of sexual scenes, points to an ultra-sexualized Western society where the influence of pornography is very important. So yes, we have reflected this fact, even if it may seem to you that we are going too far. »
If the first two episodes leave our young heroine in a bad position… the rest of the cast was there to reassure: “You will see, the women will reverse the situation during the series. Abel “The Weeknd” Tesfaye also wanted to be reassuring at the very start of the press conference: “You have to see The Idol like a fairy tale, dark indeed, but like a fairy tale”. We will know more on June 5, once the series is launched on Prime Video.