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1 year ago
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The last 10 minutes of Sunday’s episode of The Idol was branded “the worst sex scene in history,” with The Weeknd’s character accused of having “all the energy and sexual enticement of Gollum scurrying for a fish.”
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When the first trailer for the new HBO series The Idol dropped in July, it immediately caused a stir online.
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The series was created by The Weeknd, his producing partner Reza Fahim, and Euphoria’s Sam Levinson. The Weeknd, real name Abel Tesfaye, also stars as corrupt cult leader Tedros, alongside Lily-Rose Depp who plays pop star Jocelyn.
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In the trailer, the show was advertised as being “from the Gutters of Hollywood” and by “the sick & twisted minds” of Sam and The Weeknd — promising salaciousness and scandals to its viewers.
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But by March, The Idol had drawn heavy criticism after Rolling Stone published an exposé based on interviews with 13 members of the cast and crew. It detailed a tumultuous creative process and problematic rewrites that led to the project being described as “sexual torture porn.”
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One insider claimed that Sam’s vision for The Idol “was like any rape fantasy that any toxic man would have in the show."
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Sam responded to the growing backlash at the series' premiere in Cannes, where he said: “Sometimes things that might be revolutionary are taken too far.”
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The reviews that came out of Cannes also fueled the controversy around the show, with a New York Times reporter describing it as: “50 SHADES OF TESFAYE: A Pornhub-homepage odyssey starring Lily-Rose Depp’s areolas and The Weeknd’s greasy rat tail.”
“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!
— Kyle Buchanan (@kylebuchanan) May 22, 2023Variety echoed: “Levinson’s worldview seems corrupt. It shouldn’t take degradation and suffering to make Jocelyn stronger. Euphoria audiences won’t be too surprised by the shameful way he treats Depp’s character, as both she and the show appear trapped under The Weeknd’s thumb.”
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So when The Idol finally premiered on Max earlier this month, those who did tune in were caught off guard by how decidedly lackluster the whole thing was.
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Things got even worse when episode 2 aired on Sunday. The last 10 minutes of this installment showed The Weeknd’s Tedros talk dirty to Lily-Rose’s Jocelyn as she masturbated in front of him before they had sex.
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The uncomfortable scene was mercilessly dragged online due to The Weeknd’s cringe-inducing performance, with one viral tweet reading: “the funniest part about this is how sexy he thinks he looks when he doesn’t look attractive like at all.”
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Someone else added: “new episode of THE IDOL was actually really good until that 10 minute sequence at the end where the weeknd talks dirty to lily rose depp like he's in the most unbearably cringey porn and not you know.... a fucking TV SHOW. like ohmygod it is awful.”
new episode of THE IDOL was actually really good until that 10 minute sequence at the end where the weeknd talks dirty to lily rose depp like he's in the most unbearably cringey porn and not you know.... a fucking TV SHOW. like ohmygod it is awful.
— owen (@twinsnakestwins) June 12, 2023
Another wrote: “the weeknd is so fuckin lame and disappointing just another porn addicted loser male u shouldve just kept singing and not ruined ur image.”
the weeknd is so fuckin lame and disappointing just another porn addicted loser male u shouldve just kept singing and not ruined ur image
— kilala (@kilala713) June 12, 2023In fact, the whole thing was so awkward that British GQ published a damning article with the headline “The Idol just gave us the worst sex scene in history,” which asks: “Seriously, has anyone involved in this show ever had sex?”
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The article heavily criticizes The Weeknd’s acting choices, saying that Tedros has “all the energy and sexual enticement of Gollum scurrying for a fish.” Describing The Weeknd’s producer role alongside Sam, they call the two men “2 children in a trench coat.”
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“To them, sex is as follows: ‘A woman gets so turned on because a man exists, then something messy and weird happens in the middle (We won’t say what it is, but trust us, we've definitely had sex before) And then finally, when it's all over, she lets them know that was the best time she's ever had,’” the article reads.
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But The Weeknd has now responded to the backlash — and insisted that the sex scenes are supposed to be uncomfortable and viewers are meant to “feel embarrassed for the characters.”
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He also distanced himself from Tedros, who he called “pathetic” and “such a loser.” In a new interview with GQ, the star admitted that there’s “nothing really mysterious or hypnotizing” about his character.
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“We did that on purpose with his look, his outfits, his hair — the guy’s a douchebag. You can tell he cares so much about what he looks like, and he thinks he looks good,” The Weeknd explained. “But then you see these weird moments of him alone — he rehearses, he’s calculated. And he needs to do that, or he has nothing, he’s pathetic.”
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“He comes off like such a loser,” he added. “Those moments are the humanity that you find in a psychopath, the chink in his armor.”
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Referencing the sex scene in episode 2 specifically, The Weeknd said: “There’s nothing sexy about it.”
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“How ever you’re feeling watching that scene, whether it’s discomfort, or you feel gross, or you feel embarrassed for the characters. It’s all those emotions adding up to: This guy is in way over his head, this situation is one where he is not supposed to be here,” he went on. “With this show, we love to play with the emotions. We’re puppet-mastering your feelings through the show. It’s never a consistent tone, and that’s on purpose.”
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The Weeknd went on to clarify that he is nothing like Tedros in real life, saying: “The only way I could play this role was if it’s something completely different from who I am. And I can distance myself from that character. I wanted to make sure he looked nothing like me, acted nothing like me, just a totally different person.”
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And while the star did insist that he is “loving” the reaction to The Idol, he also alluded to the negative response that it has been receiving on social media.
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