‘I was excited to do it’: Lily-Rose Depp defends controversial sex scenes in The Idol and insists she’s ‘never felt safer or more respected’ on set after fans called show ‘torture porn’
Lily-Rose Depp has defended the controversial sex scenes in The Idol after viewers branded the series ‘torture porn’.
The HBO Max/Sky Atlantic series – which was created by Euphoria writer Sam Levinson, The Weeknd (Abel Tesfaye) and Reza Fahim – shows Lily-Rose’s character having a torrid romance with twisted cult leader Tedros, who is played by The Weeknd.
Highly explicit scenes featuring revenge porn, self-harm, drug abuse, masturbation, choking and a sexual encounter involving a knife have led the show to be branded a ‘toxic man’s fantasy’ while others noted that Lily-Rose spends ‘most of her time semi-naked or performing sex acts’.
Yet in a cover spread with Vogue Australia, Lily-Rose insisted that the sex scenes were ‘intentional and important, revealing she was ‘excited’ to star in the show.
Lily explained: ‘I was never interested in making something puritanical. It’s okay if this show isn’t for everyone and that’s fine – I think all the best art is [polarising]. I’ve never felt more respected and more safe on a set, honestly.’
Speaking out: Lily Rose Depp has defended the controversial sex scenes in The Idol during a chat with Vogue Australia after viewers branded the series ‘torture porn’
She added: ‘So when it comes to the nudity and the risqué nature of the role, that to me was really intentional. That was really important to me and something that I was excited about doing. I’m not scared of it. I think we live in a highly sexualised world. I think that’s an interesting thing to explore.’
Lily-Rose went on to reveal that her role as troubled pop star Jocelyn had ‘changed her’ and that she struggled with saying ‘goodbye’ to the role.
She explained: ‘I’ll never say goodbye to Jocelyn. It was such a beautiful time in my life, honestly, shooting this, with you, with all of us and everything.
‘I’ll never forget it and it will live in my heart forever. I love this character so much, I feel like she has really changed me and also taught me so, so, so much.’
Elsewhere in the chat, Lily-Rose discussed growing up as the daughter of Johnny Depp and Vanessa Paradis and the impact of a childhood in the spotlight.
She recalled: ‘I always, from when I was a kid, I remember going to school and definitely already having a sense of people asking me funny questions and having preconceived notions about me and thinking things about me and my family before they even got to know me.
‘That is something I’ve had experience with forever… Fame has never been something that I have been interested in and I can’t really understand people who are interested in that, you know?
‘I feel like the luckiest person in the world because I get to do for a living the thing I love the most, the thing that makes me feel the most fulfilled and the most inspired and I get to put all of my emotions into something beautiful, into something creative, something purposeful.
‘I feel really lucky to get to do that, whatever comes from that, even if it’s negative sometimes, to me is a small price to pay to get to do what I do.’
Shocking: The HBO Max/Sky Atlantic series – which was created by Euphoria writer Sam Levinson, The Weeknd (Abel Tesfaye) and Reza Fahim – shows Lily-Rose’s character having a torrid romance with twisted cult leader Tedros, who is played by The Weeknd
Out soon: Vogue Australia July issue goes on sale on Monday 03 July
It comes after The Weeknd was said to have felt The Idol had an excessively ‘female perspective’ and wanted the plot to give his character more attention than Lily-Rose’s.
Sam Levinson stepped in as director and reshot the show, which reportedly was heavily rewritten with so much raunchy material that one source was left thinking: ‘What is this? What am I reading here? It was like sexual torture porn.’
Other sources, however, said that the insiders Rolling Stone quoted had made their remarks without seeing the finished product.
The Weeknd responded publicly by denouncing the report as ‘ridiculous,’ arguing to Vanity Fair: ‘Shows get reshot every day.’
Lily-Rose also defended Sam, issuing a statement to E! News in which she called him ‘for so many reasons, the best director I have ever worked with.’
She added: ‘Never have I felt more supported or respected in a creative space, my input and opinions more valued.’
The showbiz legacy continued: ‘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.’
At a press conference at Cannes, Lily-Rose defended the extensive nudity on the show, arguing that ‘the occasional bareness of the character physically mirrors the bareness that we get to see emotionally in her,’ according to People.
Vogue Australia goes on sale on Monday, July 3.
Famous parents: Elsewhere in the chat, Lily-Rose discussed growing up as the daughter of Johnny Depp and Vanessa Paradis (pictured in 1999)
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