The Idol: the sleaziest love story in Hollywood

BY RAMONA RIVAS FOCUS EDITOR

The Idol, a show created, produced, written, and directed by Sam Levinson, is not even out yet and is already fraught with controversy. The Idol is the brainchild of Levinson and The Weeknd and has been characterized as a darker, crazier Euphoria about “[the] sleaziest love story in Hollywood” according to HBO. The show stars Lily-Rose Depp as a struggling pop star and The Weeknd as a mysterious selfhelp guru and cult leader.

The Weeknd wanted to tone down the cult aspect of the show and felt concerned that the series “[leaned] too much into a female perspective.” This led to Levinson rewriting almost the entire series and reshooting about 80% of the scenes already shot by Amy Seimetz (who later left the project) in order to focus less on a troubled starlet fighting to reclaim her agency and more on a love story with heavy emphasis on sex scenes and nudity, some say to replicate his most popular show: Euphoria

However, according to some, Seimetz had been set up to fail, with a production member telling Rolling Stone, “Amy was doing her best in an impossible situation, but she was going to lose this no matter what.”

When she arrived on set, she received half finished scripts, a tight schedule, and impossible expectations from HBO. The television company wanted to keep the budget small at about $54 million in total ($9 million per episode) but expected Euphoria level results. For comparison: Euphoria’s second season had a total budget of $97 million.

Seimetz had to handle all of the above plus HBO wanted her to leave her mark on the show, but Lenvinson also wanted his vision to be the only vision of the show. Seimetz wanted a satire of Hollywood that focused on Depp’s character's struggles but The Weeknd, who is the cocreator, was worried that the show placed too much focus on the “female perspective”. These creative differences ultimately led to Seimetz leaving the project and Levinson taking over and reshooting the nearly completed project.

However, production sources claim that Levinson’s version faced the same issues that plagued Seimetz’s set due to ongoing script rewrites. “There was no leash on this second incarnation,” a production member says. “The people who are fronting the cash and HBO, they’re not putting [Levinson] on a leash, knowing that you already have a [multimilliondollar] bill, supposedly, that you can’t do anything with.”

The production has left many wary of working again with Levinson, who they say is developing a track record of creating chaotic sets. “I would never work for him ever again,” one production member says. “I don’t think I’ll watch Euphoria again after working for him and knowing how he treats his crew.”

Arguably, the biggest concern amongst the crew was Levinson chipping away at the show’s original messaging and creating a distorted story that lost its impact. At various points, Levinson’s scripts contained disturbing sexual and physically violent scenes between Depp and The Weeknd’s characters. “It was like any rape fantasy that any toxic man would have in the show — and then the woman comes back for more because it makes her music better,” one production member explains of Levinson’s version.

“This was such a strong