HBO is currently enjoying the spoils of success anew thanks to its ratings monster The Last of Us, and the wait is already on for the second season of House of the Dragon. But just beyond all of the premium cabler’s known upcoming projects, one highly anticipated drama that has largely maintained an air of mystery has been Lily-Rose Depp and The Weeknd’s The Idol. With no release date in clear sight, the sex cult-infused project is at the center of an alarming new report filled with allegations of unplanned increases in sex scenes and nudity, among other issues, as tied to the budget-ballooning creative overhaul that gave Euphoria creator Sam Levinson the reins to reshoot an already near-completely season.
13 past and current crew members from HBO’s The Idol spoke anonymously with Rolling Stone about what many of them claim has been a truly standout production in their respective careers, but largely in the most negative kinds of ways. Many of the issues stem from the sudden behind-the-scenes shift in April 2022, in which original director Amy Seimetz vacated the series with only around one-fifth of the production yet to be completed. What was said to already have been a challenging and stressful filming gig (though not because of the director herself) became something else entirely once Sam Levinson stepped in. He reportedly scrapped the majority of what was already filmed — with the unconfirmed budget for Seimetz’s work being in the $54-75 million range — and shifted the narrative in a way that allegedly undercut the original idea behind the show, in part due to an assortment of newly added sex scenes that ramped up the depravity of its characters along with the nudity for the actors.
Under Amy Seimetz’s guidance, The Idol was a story about Lily-Rose Depp’s starlet attempting to make a name for herself in the music industry and falling into the snares of an influential predator (played by Abel “The Weeknd” Tesfaye”) who runs both a nightclub and a secret sex cult that mirrors the NXIVM scandal. With The Idol changes reportedly happening in part because Tesfaye felt the story had too much of a female perspective, Levinson’s revised take on the core story is implied as being his way of topping Euphoria’s controversial sex scenes, thus flipping the entire point of the show on its head. As one crew member put it:
What I signed up for was a dark satire of fame and the fame model in the 21st century. The things that we subject our talent and stars to, the forces that put people in the spotlight and how that can be manipulated in the post-Trump world. It went from satire to the thing it was satirizing.
Sam Levinson’s script changes reportedly came on the fly, to the point where production staff were allegedly unaware what they were meant to be planning for on a day to day basis. And even after finding out each morning what was happening, still had to deal with mid-day changes, with scenes getting added and removed, shot and reshot. Two such drafted-but-unfilmed moments reportedly included:
- A scene in which Tesfaye's character violently punches Depp's character in the face, after which she smiled and asked to be hit more, thus provoking an erection from her aggressor.
- A moment in which Depp's character would be tasked with carrying an egg inside her vagina without dropping or breaking it, with the punishment for erring being that Tesfaye's character would refuse to "rape" her. This would have been followed by her going emotionally overboard and loudly begging him to "rape" her.
The reason why the latter moment wasn't filmed is allegedly because no one could figure out a way to realistically convey that Depp was putting an egg into her vagina without her physically inserting an egg into her actual vagina. One of the crew members who spoke about that suggested sequence had this to say:
It was like, ‘What is this? What am I reading here?’ It was like sexual torture porn.
Sam Levinson's penchant for nudity and envelope-pushing scenes in Euphoria have earned the full gamut of reactions from viewers, with those opposed pointing to the sexualization of the teenaged characters as being problematic, even if the performers themselves are of age. (With co-star Chloe Cherry coming directly from the world of porn.) Not that the show's older character don't get their own risqué scenes, as evidenced by Eric Dane's prosthetic dong.
Sydney Sweeney has spoken out several times about her own nude scenes, sharing that they've had a measurable effect on her career. She's also revealed that her character was written to have other nude moments as well, and said she felt comfortable suggesting to Sam Levinson that she be clothed, with the director reportedly having no problem adjusting.
Which isn't to say that Amy Semetz's initial take on The Idol was without sex scenes, since that was still central to the story, though in a way that allowed Lily-Rose Depp's character to empower herself enough to escape the violence of The Weeknds character and his cult. But the heightened focus on such content is noted as being totally gratuitous and a disservice to the story itself, taking away from whatever message is still there.
Several sources pointed to a reported lack of oversight and involvement from HBO's higher-ups as being part of the problem, with no one in charge to corrall Levinson's creative process. If not to cull the rampant nudity, then to at least provide a steady daily schedule for those working.
Stay tuned for more info on The Idol's impending release on HBO.
