Lily-Rose Depp Opens Up About All That Backlash The Idol Received
"We were also pushing society’s buttons intentionally a little bit."
Lily-Rose Depp is still singing The Idol’s praises, even if not everyone wants to join her. The short-lived 2023 series was infamously mired in controversy, most notably for its daringly explicit sex scenes and allegations that creator Sam Levinson completely changed the original tone of the series when he took over as director. Looking back a year and a half later, Depp said the worst part of that time was hearing all the hate Levinson was getting.
“The thing that sucked about that was to have people kind of like talking sh*t about Sam, who is a great friend of mine and somebody that I consider like family,” Depp said during a Jan. 2 appearance on the Happy Sad Confused podcast. “The only thing that was upsetting about that whole time period was people talking negatively about him, because the things that they said about him, particularly as a filmmaker, just couldn't be further from the truth, at least from my experience working with him. So that sucks. You just never want to hear people talking sh*t about your friend.”
Aside from the backlash Levinson received, The Idol itself was also not very well-received by audiences. Each new episode was roasted on social media, and the show was unceremoniously canceled after just five episodes. Despite that, Depp will always have a place in her heart for her troubled pop star Jocelyn.
“I love that character. And I love that show,” Depp said. “People are always gonna make their own opinions of things. And so you just have to be steadfast in your conviction of like, ‘I know why I did that.’”
Depp said she was prepared for people to be riled up by the series. “We always knew it was gonna be controversial. So you gotta be expecting that in a way,” the actor said. “I'm interested in that kind of work, I'm down for that, and I think we were also pushing society's buttons intentionally a little bit in a way. And, of course, it was received in the way that it was, but it's OK ... I wouldn't have changed anything about it.”
