Those who follow Abel Tesfaye as a singer, where he calls himself The Weeknd, already know that he takes himself seriously as an artist. Author of hits like Blinding lights, Starboy or Save your tears, he sings like an angel, dances as if he wanted to succeed Michael Jackson and has a nose for show business. He is a performer who goes beyond the performances themselves, as he demonstrated when he began an artistic stage where he showed himself with bandages on his face, as if he had just come out of a fight or a traffic accident, or pretending to have had surgery on his cheekbones, lips and nose. So it was to be expected that if he got into acting beyond his video clips like he just did with The Idol, the way he approached his job would be something to talk about.
The project came out of a conversation with Sam Levinson, when he made him a series proposal. At that time he explained to the creator of Euphoria that, if he wanted to, he could start a sect. When you have the love of the fans, your followability expands, and Levinson, who was working on the second season of Zendaya’s series, thought there was a series there. They wrote a story about a down-and-out pop singer, slut-shamed by the media and mentally ill, who is seduced by a shady, cult-leader, late-night businessman. This man named Tedros wants to blow off steam with Jocelyn’s body, yes, but also use the girl’s position in the music industry to expand her horizons.
According to Lily-Rose Depp, the long-suffering Jocelyn who must survive demanding dramatic and erotic scenes, Tesfaye did not subscribe to method acting, the acting method used by Jared Leto or Jeremy Strong that consists of being like the character in fiction even throughout the filming. “No one went totally method, no one lost their minds,†she explained. But she hinted that The Weeknd’s functioning moved through that terrain: “When he went into Tedros-sack mode, sometimes I preferred to stay away from him.”
For Abel Tesfaye it was a very immersive experience after his decision to fire Amy Seimetz, who had been hired to direct the series because Levinson’s schedule prevented him from being in the day-to-day life of the project. Several chapters had been filmed when the singer saw the footage and realized that it was not his vision of The idol: it focused excessively on the female gaze and, in his opinion, the story should be told more from the point of view of Tedros. Because Tesfaye and Levinson came to the conclusion that they did not want to cancel the project but would have to cut costs if they wanted to rewrite and shoot the episodes without Seimetz, he agreed to shoot at his own home.
“You can’t buy a production design like that,” Levinson told him, who would direct episodes from that point on after Euphoria’s second season ended. Levinson, his wife Ashley Lent Levinson, who is a producer, and his baby moved there. Tesfaye, on the other hand, left her own home to distance himself from the fictional setting. Bedrooms were turned into break rooms, bathrooms were for wardrobe and makeup, and a music studio had to be set up in the basement for himself and songwriter Mike Dean. “The soul of Jocelyn’s house is still there,†he said of his home after the production process wrapped.
The process was so immersive, in fact, he even lost his voice. It was September, she was playing her second consecutive night of concert in Los Angeles and, while he was on stage, she had to leave him: “I don’t know what happened but I just lost my voice.” During the promotion of the series, however, she revealed the reason: The idol was so in his head, the character of Tedros affected him so much, that he lost his ability to sing notes. “I had to get out of The Weeknd’s suit, put on the Tedros wig, shoot with Jocelyn, and then go back to being The Weeknd,†he said. “My theory is that I forgot how to sing because I was playing Tedros, a character who can’t sing.”
And the result of all this creative process? Criticisms that, beyond the desire of the media to hate The idol, are not particularly flattering with Abel Tesfaye as an actor. “How can a professional artist be so lifeless in front of the camera?” they wondered from IndieWire. From the New Yorker they regret that they have not chosen Tesfaye for a role as a musical artist at the same time that they lament his “lack of charisma”.
In Variety they lament that both Depp’s character and the series “seem trapped under The Weeknd’s thumb.” “Tesfaye definitely does not have the evil charisma that would allow a man to say that without receiving a slap,” they criticize in Slate about his way of interpreting some dialogue. And in The Playlist they don’t mince words, describing him as “a terrible actor†who lacks “comfort, gravity, charisma and charmâ€. Taking into account the words of the American critic, it could be said that Abel Tesfaye is like a conned Little Mermaid: he literally lost his voice to explore a new world but, against his will, he did not gain any abilities.
