HBO’s ‘The Idol’ Set Is a ‘Shitshow’: Female Empowerment Became ‘Torture Porn’ on Likely $100+ Million Series — Report

For the past several months, HBO has been relentlessly hyping up “The Idol,” a limited series from “Euphoria” creator Sam Levinson and R&B giant The Weeknd. But over the last year, the show has faced very public production issues — and it turns out that those first reports may have only scratched the surface of tensions on set.

A new Rolling Stone report published Wednesday goes behind the scenes of the music industry drama, with 13 anonymous sources from production describing a chaotic and tense set, with shooting going behind schedule and scripts finishing late.

The report also describes how many that worked on the show take issue with the rewrites that occurred after Levinson replaced Amy Seimetz (“The Girlfriend Experience,” “She Dies Tomorrow”) as the series director, following her April 2022 exit from the show. Reportedly, the original version of the series — which stars Lily-Rose Depp as an aspiring pop star who develops an intense sexual relationship with a self-help guru (played by The Weeknd) — focused heavily on the “female perspective,” which both The Weeknd and Levinson took issue with.

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Several scripts written by Levinson after Seimetz’s exit allegedly featured explicit and disturbing content that crew members on the show said they found alarming. One scrapped scene described in the story, where The Weeknd’s character inserts an egg into Depp’s vagina and refuses to “rape” her if she dropped or cracked the egg, was reportedly cut because the filmmakers couldn’t logistically make that scene happen while preserving the egg. Per the report, the scene features Depp’s character begging The Weeknd to “rape” her. “It was like, ‘What is this? What am I reading here?’” a source said. “It was like sexual 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,” an anonymous source told Rolling Stone on the show.

An overall criticism from sources was that the series was allegedly constantly being reshot and rewritten in real-time, with Levinson allegedly wanting to ramp up the violent and sexual content that was more toned down in the original production under Seimetz’s direction. A source reportedly said Seimetz’s original version was about “a woman who was finding herself sexually,” while the rewrite turned it “into a show about a man who gets to abuse this woman and she loves it.”

Sources also tell Rolling Stone that the series cost $54-75 million even before the original production was scrapped and Levinson and The Weeknd went on to retool the series.

“It was, let’s just say, a shitshow,” one source said of the production.

Levinson is meanwhile reportedly beginning production on “Euphoria” Season 3 later this year. The production issues described in the Rolling Stone story are similar to reports of tensions on the set of “Euphoria’s” second season from last year, which claimed that multiple SAG-AFTRA union complaints were filed against the show for failing to provide meals on time or letting people use the bathroom, among other labor issues. The reports also claimed Levinson failed to show up to set with a shot list, causing 18-hour workdays, and that Levinson and series star Barbie Ferreira got into a blow-out fight during production over the writing for her character during the season. (Ferreira exited at Season 2’s end.)

HBO denied the accusations regarding the “Euphoria” set at the time, claiming no formal SAG-AFTRA complaints were filed and that “it’s not uncommon for drama series to have complex shoots, and COVID protocols add an additional layer.”

In a statement to Rolling Stone, HBO representatives said the creative team of “The Idol” is “committed to creating a safe, collaborative, and mutually respectful working environment, and last year, the team made creative changes they felt were in the best interest of both the production and the cast and crew.”

IndieWire has reached out to HBO representatives for comment.

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