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The Weeknd now understands why his acting debut, The Idol, received negative reviews.
The singer, actual name Abel Tesfaye, said it "makes a lot of sense" given how quickly the record was put together.
"The pandemic happened, theaters were no longer a thing at the time, television is the new god," Tesfaye told The Guardian, explaining that the show was originally intended to be a film, but the post-COVID situation forced him and co-creators Reza Fahim and Euphoria mastermind Sam Levinson to turn it into a five-episode show.
"It would have been better if it had a beginning, middle, and end. "It just ended in the middle," he commented.
The Idol, which also starred Lily-Rose Depp, Suzanna Son, and Troye Sivan, was heavily condemned by both professionals and spectators.
The Weeknd went on to say that the show suffered from a lack of passion among some cast and staff members, who were eager for it to end.
"The best films have as much of a singular voice as possible, and everybody working on it cares about it just as much as the director and the actors," he told me.
"People cared about it, for sure," he said of Idol. "But I believe it reached a point where everyone was trying to get to the finish line. You can't force things. You've simply got to let it be whatever it is, even if it's half-baked."
He also said that while he was engaged in the show's conceptualization, he had to tone it down to avoid coming off as demanding.
"[Because] then I become 'difficult,' and the worst thing you can be called in Hollywood is difficult," remarked the comedian. "'Difficult' spreads!"
"You've got to pay your dues," he explained. "But boy, did I pay my dues."
"And even though you're looking at everything that is going on and it's like, 'I'm gonna have diarrhea right now because my instincts are saying things are off,' you have to trust the professionals, the system," says The Weeknd. "You must see it through to the end." "It was unfortunate."
