The Weeknd Says He Was So in Character on HBO’s Upcoming Music Drama The Idol, ‘I Forgot How to Sing’
Some performances take your breath away. The Weeknd‘s, in HBO’s forthcoming The Idol, snatched his voice.
The singer — whose real name is Abel Tesfaye — plays nightclub owner/cult leader Tedros in the drama from Euphoria‘s Sam Levinson. The character becomes deeply enmeshed with a rising pop star (played by Lily-Rose Depp) but is not, himself, a singer… a difference that Tesfaye reportedly took on right down to his vocal chords.
After filming an Idol scene as Tedros during one of The Weeknd’s own concerts at California’s SoFi Stadium, “It was tough to go from one head to another,” Tesfaye says in a new interview in W magazine. “Then, after the concert, I lost my voice. No voice came out at all. That’s never happened before. My theory is that I forgot how to sing because I was playing Tedros, a character who doesn’t know how to sing.”
He adds: “I may be looking too deeply into this, but it was terrifying” and “There was something very complicated going on with my mind at that moment.”
The series, described in its logline as the “sleaziest love story in all of Hollywood,” follows Depp’s starlet Jocelyn as she navigates the music industry and ultimately falls under Tedros’ control. Our sister site Rolling Stone recently reported on the near-total creative overhaul that led to a reshoot of the entire first season and turned the show into “sexual torture porn.” Tesfaye was not quoted in the piece but responded via Twitter with a clip from the show in which Tedros calls the magazine “irrelevant.” “@RollingStone did we upset you?” Tesfaye added.
In a statement to Rolling Stone, HBO defended both The Idol and the production process, adding that “the creative team has been 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.”
The Idol will premiere on Sunday, June 4, at 9/8c on HBO. It will stream on Max.
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It sounds more like he is just trying too hard to want people to believe he is a great actor. Nothing against singers crossing over into acting but it’s a gradual natural shift, but he seems to be determined that people think he is an amazing actor right away. I guess we’ll see when the show comes out but this is certain the impression I get from the trailers and interview so far.
I get more the vibe that because he is not a train actor that was why he was having so much trouble separating all the different personas in his life.
The mediocrity of the acting on this show from Abel so far is shocking. Hoping they are just hiding the good stuff. I’m just judging from the trailers, maybe they purposely wanted us to think he wasn’t giving.. I don’t know.
The trailers haven’t looked very good, and the behind-the-scenes controversies surrounding this show has made it even more unappealing. Can Sam Levinson take his perverted self and go away already?
Forgot how to sing….Was he playing himself?
Or does he genuinely think mumbling into autotune is singing?
I can’t imagine working on a show of Adam Levinson’s being compared to torture porn. We’ve never heard that before.
Haha, good one!