The Weeknd (aka Abel Tesfaye) did a new interview with Vanity Fair, ahead of his upcoming HBO show, The Idol, premiering at Cannes this week. However, the series, which Tesfaye stars in, has encountered some controversy along the way.
A few months ago, Rolling Stone came out with an article that alleged it had gone “wildly, disgustingly off the rails.” Sources also claimed that there were tons of rewrites and reshoots from showrunner Sam Levinson (Euphoria) that turned it into “twisted torture porn.”
“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 source claimed.
Just a few hours after the piece gained traction, Tesfaye pushed back on social media, using a clip from The Idol where his character calls the publication irrelevant. During his Coachella appearance at Metro Boomin’s set, he skipped over the Rolling Stone lyric of “Heartless.” Now, he’s continuing to make his thoughts clear.
.@RollingStone did we upset you? pic.twitter.com/Uyx06lyRgx
— Abel Tesfaye (@theweeknd) March 1, 2023
“I thought the article was ridiculous,” Tesfaye said in the Vanity Fair interview. “I wanted to give a ridiculous response to it.”
“I actually really loved working with Amy [Seimetz],” he added, touching upon a claim about tensions with Seimetz, who departed the show during the early production process, “and I’m sure she’s reading all this being like, ‘Why am I being thrown into this?’”
Tesfaye’s The Idol is set to begin airing on Max starting June 4.