In a new piece from Rolling Stone, anonymous members of the cast and crew of Sam Levinson and The Weeknd’s forthcoming HBO show, The Idol, opened up about the reportedly toxic work environment that spiraled out of control.
The Weeknd (Abel Tesfaye) both starred and co-created the show. However, it was originally set to be directed by Amy Seimetz before she left the show — and Levinson (Euphoria) took over in her place. This is reportedly when the chaos started, resulting in an overhaul of Seimetz’s direction and shoots.
“It was like the Weeknd wanted one show that was all about him — Sam was on board with that,” a source shared. However, they also faced alleged difficulty with Tesfaye’s schedule as a musician, causing him to be less hands-on: “It was really frustrating because they were working so hard to make it possible to shoot and be released with his concert or whatever his timeline was [and] it all got thrown out the window.”
The piece goes on to note that three crew members claim that despite Tesfaye’s writing credits on the series, he didn’t contribute much to scripts during the reshoots.
Last April, there was also a Deadline report that Tesfaye felt the show was focusing too much on his co-star, Lily Rose-Depp, as he thought it had too much of a “female perspective.”