The Idol creator reacts to controversial exposé article at Cannes press con | Web Series
The main team of the upcoming HBO show The Idol assembled at a press conference on Tuesday after its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival. Series creator Sam Levinson had gotten emotional after the showing of the first two episodes of the series. The Cannes crowd gave it a five-minute standing ovation. Actors Lily-Rose Depp, Abel ‘The Weeknd’ Tesfaye and Sam were part of the press conference where both Sam and Lily shared their reactions to the Rolling Stone exposé article published earlier this year. (Also read: The Idol first reactions are in: HBO show divides Cannes with ‘too much nudity’)
The Idol will premiere next month on June 4, 2023. Lily-Rose plays an up and coming pop singer named Jocelyn who meets a club owner and cult leader Tedros (Abel). Their rocky relationship makes up the series. The ensemble cast also stars Troye Sivan, Hank Azaria, Dan Levy, Da’Vine Joy Randolph, Eli Roth, Hari Nef, Jane Adams, Blankpink’s Jennie Ruby Jane, and Mike Dean. Sam, who also created the Emmy-winning series Euphoria, has co-created The Idol with Abel and Reza Fahim.
During the press conference at Cannes, a French reporter questioned Sam about the now-infamous Rolling Stone exposé that said the show’s subject and set were both problematic. A video of the exchange was shared by Variety. Sam replied, “We know we’re making a show that is provocative. It’s not lost on us. When my wife read me the article, I looked at her and said, ‘I think we’re 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.”
He also added, “There’s two jobs in this business. There’s the work and there’s the managing of the persona. And managing a persona is not interesting to me because it takes away the time and energy that I would spend on the work. They’re free to write whatever they want. I think my only slight little grievance was that they intentionally omitted anything that didn’t fit their narrative.
The series’ star Lily-Rose also shared that it was disheartening to see ‘mean, false things’ about the people you care about. The actor stated that the Rolling Stone article did not reflect her experience shooting the series.
