Lily-Rose Depp has defended the “bareness” of her character in explicit new drama “The Idol”. The actress, 23, has already backed its creator Sam Levinson, the mastermind behind “Euphoria”, against accusations he has turned his latest shock HBO show into “torture porn and a rape fantasy,” and has now said its raunchiness is “very important” in the portrayal of her wannabe singer character Jocelyn.
She said at the Cannes Film Festival, “Jocelyn is a born and bred performer – and I think that extends to every aspect of her life, not just her professional life. The way that she dresses, for example, is her trying to tell you something all the time… or express herself in some kind of way. I also think that the occasional bareness of the character physically mirrors the bareness that we get to see emotionally in her. I was given the privilege of being really involved in the creation of this character and the ins and outs of how she expresses herself.”
The drama received a five-minute standing ovation at Cannes where it got its premiere ahead of its release on June 5, with creator Sam, 38, saying in response, “I feel like I gained a family.”
He added about the show, which stars its co-writer The Weeknd, 33, whose real name is Abel Tesfaye, as a cult leader, “We live in a very sexualised world… where the influence of pornography is really strong in terms of the psyche of young people. And we see this in pop music.”
Sam also claimed he and Lily-Rose had shared “a lot of discussions” about “who Jocelyn is a person” and called her a character who has “such a strong sense of self and such a strong sexual sense.” Lily-Rose previously defended the series after crew from its set spoke under anonymity to Rolling Stone for a piece published in March, in which they said Sam had cranked up the show’s nudity, sex and violence to exploitative levels.
She told E! News in a statement, “Sam is, for so many reasons, the best director I have ever worked with. Never have I felt more supported or respected in a creative space, my input and opinions more valued. Working with Sam is a true collaboration in every way – it matters to him, more than anything, not only what his actors think about the work, but how we feel performing it. He hires people whose work he esteems and has always created an environment in which I felt seen, heard, and appreciated.”
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