This is the phenomenon everyone is talking about. Last May, Lily-Rose Depp walked the red carpet at the 76th Cannes Film Festival to present The Idol, co-created by Sam Levinson and Abel Tesfaye (known in music as The Weeknd). A fiction of six episodes, the first two of which were presented out of competition, which did not leave the critics indifferent.
For this first role in a series, the 24-year-old Franco-American actress plays Jocelyn, a pop star with a tormented life. “Following her last tour marred by a nervous breakdown, Jocelyn is determined to reclaim her title as America’s hottest and sexiest pop star,” the summary reads. A meeting will then upset her daily life and her career as a singer.
“Tedros (played by Abel Tesfaye), a nightclub owner with a troubled past, rekindles the flame within her,” the synopsis continues. “Will this new romance take her to the top of her game, or will she rock her to the depths of her soul?” A clever cocktail between celebrity, music, sex and provocation that recently blew up social networks.
After a much-talked-about preview, The Idol aired its first episode on June 4 on HBO in the United States, also viewable on the Prime Video platform. The sulphurous series (not recommended for children under 14) has greatly divided the public. On social networks, Internet users were divided in front of the shocking universe and the controversial character played by the daughter of Vanessa Paradis and Johnny Depp.
“Is that vulgar? YES, it is. The dialogues are despicable as well. Now what’s the will behind it? Future episodes will tell. So far, hard to determine,” said entrusted the Internet user Laura Popcorn on Twitter. “Lily-Rose’s hypersexualization is horrible, really how he treats her as if she were a common object”, “This afternoon, I tested the first 2 episodes of The Idol and it was too embarrassing. .. it’s nonsense”, complained other spectators on the social network.
Under fire from critics, Lily-Rose Depp returned to the inspiration for the character of Jocelyn. Like the femme fatales of cinema like Sharon Stone (in Basic Instinct) and Jeanne Moreau (in Jules et Jim) or famous popstars like her idol Britney Spears. “Of course I’m a Britney fan!” she told in an interview for W Magazine. “Who doesn’t love Britney? But I was also thinking of Beyoncé, Mariah and all the great pop stars of our time. I wanted Jocelyn to be the kind of woman who can dominate a room, someone who never fears her glow”.
The famous actress and muse Chanel has defended her character in the face of attacks by admitting that The Idol is not suitable for all audiences. “We always knew we were going to do something provocative, which might not appeal to everyone. It appealed to all of us,” The Weeknd’s muse told The Hollywood Reporter. After this media launch, the idol Jocelyn made her debut on Sunday evening in front of 913,000 viewers, according to the TVLine site.
