It promised to be the controversial series, and it is. Sex, drugs and pop instead of rock & roll is what keeps it alive, before its first Sunday June 4, in conversations, social networks and portals of the idolBesides, of course, the presence of The weekend and of pink lily deppthe daughter of Johnny Depp and Vanessa Paradis, leading the cast.
Depp is Jocelyn, a pop star, who rose to fame à la Britney Spears, only to be left devastated and in crisis after her mother’s death. The day she is trying to record a video clip of her, at her villa, an ex-lover posted a close-up of her online, with cum on her face.
To say she’s vulnerable is an understatement, and that’s how she meets Tedros, the character from The weekendcharismatic cult leader and music club owner, marking the acting debut of Canadian Abel “The Weeknd” Tesfaye.
The showrunner of the series, Sam Levinson, was said to have duped the HBO executives and led the original story into another one of misogyny and violence.
Depp and The Weeknd, along with Levinson, who is its creator Euphoriaalso of HBO, had their meeting with the international press, including, clarion-, at the Cannes Film Festival.
It was the day after the screening of the first two episodes of the series, in a Sala Lumière where nobody entered anymore, with reserved seats and sold out for days, and after the party for the series in an exclusive club, the Palm Club, in Palm Beach, on the other side of Cannes. At the party, we already mentioned from Cannes that we were there, that The Weeknd became a DJ, playing lots of songs from the 70s and 80s, while Lily-Rose and the rest of the cast danced their heads off to the floor.
The Weeknd, as DJ
Of the Late night party, as advertised, retired just before 5am. It’s noon and they will have rested a bit. They are seen, if not beaming, outgoing to explore, talk about – and, it will be seen, defend – the series, which is about the dark side of celebrities in the music business.
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There was an article about rolling stones on the series, which will occupy the vacant day and time slot on Sunday successionand before The Last of Us, which discussed last-minute changes, a chaotic work environment, and the fact that the original director, Amy Seimetz, has been replaced by Levinson. It seems to have changed more than direction, and from satire to a predatory misogyny of the music business.
Something Depp and The Weeknd have denied. “It’s always a little sad and disheartening when there’s this nasty, untrue stuff going around about someone you really care about and you know you don’t,” the actress said.
Provocative
“We know we’re doing a provocative program, but still it’s strange,” defended Levinson, son of Barry, the Oscar winner. Rain Man, with Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruise-. “Because when my wife read the article to me, I said, ‘I think we’re about to do the biggest show of the summer.’
In terms of the details of what I read in it, it seemed completely foreign to me. But I know who they are… People can write whatever they want. If I have one small objection, it is that they have deliberately omitted everything that was not in conformity with the truth. But I think we’ve seen a lot lately,” the director broke off.
The Weeknd explained that the idea of the idol He started out “wanting to do a dark, twisted fantasy about the music industry, and elevate it”, although he admitted that he “never really met anyone like my character. Sam and I wanted to see if it was possible to create our own pop star, using my experiences, his and Lily’s.For the avoidance of doubt, he added that the idol it is meant to be “a funny satire that makes you angry”.
And boy did it.
But isn’t it, perhaps, perhaps, in one of those, too explicit? already in the series Variety called it “a sick male fantasy”, and hit on Levinson, arguing that the product is not scandalous but demeaning, and The Hollywood Reporter He went further: he said it was more regressive than transgressive.
There is an explicit reference, not to sex but to Britney Spears, in the opening episode of the series. Lily-Rose Depp clarified that the series “tells no one else’s story” other than her character’s. There are stars like Britney and other incredible stars who deal with the psychological burden of a life I haven’t lived on a daily basis.
Levinson assured that it is “because she is one of the greatest pop stars of all time”, but that it has nothing to do with Jocelyn, nor that the protagonist is inspired by the pop princess.
“We are not basing this story on any particular star. We want to show in general how the world perceives pop stars and the pressure they put on them. It’s a constant pressure, you have to be who everyone wants you to be,” she added.
The Weeknd, who was already in Argentina at Lollapalooza in 2017, and will perform this year on October 18 and 19 at the River Plate stadium, hasn’t stopped throwing phrases like headlines. “Fame corrupts. It’s very easy to surround yourself with people who seem mild-mannered, but it’s also something very scary,” he added.
The director was the one who seemed to be most disturbed by the critical comments and said that, if the idol has one goal, is to “emphasize how the world perceives pop stars and the pressure on them,” something that is seen on screen not only in Tedros and Jocelyn’s relationship-abuse, but as they treat her from her closest entourage, read her producers. When Jocelyn wants to change to improve her next album, days after her release, they will already see the criticisms leveled at her.
Speaking of a certain “excess of explicit sex scenes”, Levinson defended himself, arguing that “we live in a hyper-sexualized world, and this series is a reflection of the way we have prostituted pop culture in the United States. There the influence of pornography on young people is very strong, on a psychic level. It’s something that also happens in the music industry and in the idealization of people on the internet.
Source: Clarin
