Inside 'The Idol' Scene That Sam Levinson Finally Showed Up For After Allegedly Skipping Filming For Weeks
He walked in on a steamy scene.
Eugene Powers, Sky Cinema, Anxionnaz Brice / Shutterstock & CanvaPro The star-studded HBO show "The Idol," is facing controversy ahead of its release later this year and the show's creator, Sam Levinson is catching most of the heat.
Rumors of behind-the-scenes drama and production delays have circled the show for most but a recent investigation by Rolling Stone suggests that the show's set may have had more trouble than previously believed.
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The six-episode series began filming with director and actress Amy Seimetz of "The Girlfriend Experience" and "She Dies Tomorrow" who was eventually replaced by Levinson.
According to Rolling Stone, Levinson's directorial takeover also marked a shift in tone on set and a departure from the female perspective the show previously had.
The "Euphoria" creator has long been accused of running a disorganized production and "The Idol" looks to have been no different.
In fact, sources implied that Levinson was partially absent from filming and seemed to only show up for a particular type of scene.
When Levinson finally showed up to set, it was an intimate scene between Lily-Rose Depp and The Weeknd.
Levinson was reportedly present while Depp was filming the sex scene with the show's co-creator, The Weeknd — whose real name is Abel Tesfaye.
Levinson's show plays out vastly differently, and purportedly more sexual, than Seimetz's vision. She reportedly shot four to five episodes worth of footage before her swift exit and subsequent changes to the show.
Seimetz’s “feminist lens” was allegedly scrapped in favor of a show “that was all about [The Weeknd],” an anonymous source told Rolling Stone. Levinson reportedly accepted this new direction, disapproving of Seimetz’s vision.
The Weeknd, according to the report felt that the show had taken on too much of a “female perspective.”
But Levinson wasn't even on set for the first few weeks of filming, opting to focus on wrapping season two of "Euphoria." His choice reportedly compounded frustration on set due to already having to work around The Weeknd’s busy schedule.
Levinson's major shift in creative direction has prompted it to be labeled a “s--t-show” by an anonymous crew member.
Other crew members describe a nightmarish environment on set, with one saying they cry daily and get two hours of sleep between work days.
Levinson and others wrote many of the scenes on the day of shooting them. A source even described one of Levinson’s rewritten scenes as “torture porn.”
“It’s almost such an extreme that it’s like, there is no message,” one crew member said. “There is no point. They’re just trying to see how much of a reaction they can get.”
Levinson allegedly intended to shoot a scene depicting sexual violence.
The scene, described as a “rape fantasy,” would show Depp’s character putting an egg inside her vagina, but the production team could not find a realistic way of shooting it, so it was scrapped.
“What I signed up for was a dark satire of fame and the fame model in the 21st century,” one production member explained to Rolling Stone.
“The things that we subject our talent and stars to, the forces that put people in the spotlight and how that can be manipulated in the post-Trump world.”
“It went from satire to the thing it was satirizing.”
Levinson has been accused of including excessive nudity in 'Euphoria.'
The director's most famous production is centered around the lives of teenagers but frequently features nude scene — mostly with the show's female stars and often gratuitously.
"Euphoria" stars Sydney Sweeney, Alexa Demie, Minka Kelly, Chloe Cherry and Martha Kelly had all raised concerns with Levinson regarding his requests for nudity.
Ethan Cotler is a writer living in Boston. He writes on entertainment and news.