Months following reviews of reshoots and exits from “The Idol,” HBO launched three teaser clips to get viewers excited. However that buzz was interrupted with disturbing allegations on March 1 when Rolling Stone revealed an investigation into the behind-the-scenes occasions of the present. Per interviews with 13 solid and crew members, the exposé detailed all the things from scripts containing quite a lot of bodily and sexually violent scenes between Depp’s and Tesfaye’s characters to numerous delays, reshoots, and rewrites that one member categorised as “a sh*tshow.”

The article claimed that the primary purple flag for “The Idol” arose after Seimetz exited the present with roughly 80 p.c of it completed. On the time of her departure, reviews have been unclear about what precisely signaled the foremost artistic modifications to the present, however Rolling Stone reported that Tesfaye felt the present was leaning an excessive amount of right into a “feminine perspective.” A supply seconded that concept to the publication, saying, “It was like The Weeknd needed one present that was all about him — Sam was on board with that.”

Rolling Stone additionally famous that delays for “The Idol” have been brought on by Levinson getting extra concerned in directing, as he reportedly scrapped the nearly-finished $54-75 million challenge to rewrite and reshoot the collection in its entirety. Sources then claimed Levinson dampened “The Idol”‘s authentic message by growing the quantity of sexual content material and nudity featured to match — and doubtlessly surpass — his different raunchy HBO collection, “Euphoria.”

“What I signed up for was a darkish satire of fame and the celebrity mannequin within the twenty first century. The issues that we topic our expertise and stars to, the forces that put folks within the highlight and the way that may be manipulated within the post-Trump world,” one crew member shared, including, “It went from satire to the factor it was satirizing.”

One other crew member stated of the present’s X-rated content material, “It was like every rape fantasy that any poisonous man would have within the present — after which the lady comes again for extra as a result of it makes her music higher.” In the meantime, one other member described the collection as “sexual torture porn.”

Then again, Depp defended Levinson’s imaginative and prescient for the present and known as him “the perfect director” she’s ever labored with in an announcement to POPSUGAR. She additionally added that she’s by no means “felt extra supported or revered in a artistic house, my enter, and opinions extra valued.”

An HBO rep shared a separate assertion with POPSUGAR, writing, “The artistic group has been dedicated to making a secure, collaborative, and mutually respectful working surroundings, and final yr, the group made artistic modifications they felt have been in the perfect curiosity of each the manufacturing and the solid and crew.”

Reps for Levinson and Tesfaye didn’t reply to POPSUGAR’s request for touch upon the Rolling Stone report.