The Idol director Sam Levinson reacts to toxic work environment allegations on set

The Weeknd and Lily-Rose Depp starrer The Idol premiered at Cannes Film Festival on Monday night. The show got a 5-minute-long standing ovation from the audience. A day later, lead actors and director Sam Levinson attended the press conference of their show, where the issue of the Rolling Stone article was raised. 

The particular journalistic piece was released in March and described the work environment of The Idol as “toxic”. They called out Levinson for allegedly changing the show's initial theme by including more nudity and "disturbing" sexual imagery. When asked about the infamous article and the allegations that were thrown his way, Levinson said, “We know we are making a show that's provocative, it's not lost on us. My wife read me the article and I looked at her and just said ‘I think we are about to have the biggest show of the summer.’” 

“In terms of the specifics of what was in it, it just felt completely foreign to me but I know who I am. I think there’s two jobs in this business, the work and the managing of the persona and managing the persona is not interesting to me because it takes away the time and energy I would spend on the work so they are free to write whatever they want. My only slight grievance was that they intentionally omitted anything that didn’t fit their narrative,” he added. 

Lily-Rose Depp and Sam Levinson response about the Rolling Stone accusations. pic.twitter.com/XOhQ8wCg8O

— The Idol Updates (@theidolupdates) May 23, 2023

Lily Rose Depp also came to the show's defense and said, “I just want to say it's always a little sad and disheartening to see mean false things about something you really care about, that you know is not like that. It was not reflective at all of my experience shooting the show.” 

More about The Idol 

The storyline of The Idol revolves around the world of the music industry. It focuses on the love story of a female pop singer. While singer The Weeknd is the executive producer of the series, Euphoria filmmaker Sam Levinson has directed the show. It stars Johnny Depp's daughter and actress Lily-Rose Depp, Troye Sivan, Jennie and Danny Levy among others.