Lily-Rose Depp's The Idol Home is The Weeknd's Real-Life Bel Air Mansion
The singer sacrificed his mansion for the show.
Even before its premiere on HBO earlier this week, The Idol was already a controversial show thanks to the reports of excessive nudity and all the behind-the-scenes drama surrounding the project. One of the troubles with the show was that its creators, Sam Levison and Abel Tesfaye aka The Weeknd, decided to reshoot the whole thing halfway through production, which eventually forced the latter to make one big sacrifice.
The first version of The Idol was completely different from the sex-fest that the show is now. Both Tesfaye and Euphoria's creator Levinson were not okay with it and wanted to reshoot the show with more nudity and controversial content.
Obviously, HBO's producers were reluctant to go with the creators' vision, as they were already spending a pretty penny on the show's production. So Levinson and The Weeknd were forced to think about how to reshoot their show without a huge budget and came up with a rather unorthodox solution.
While sitting in Tesfaye's Bel Air mansion discussing the future of their project, Levinson came up with the crazy idea of reshooting The Idol in the singer's home. To the creator's surprise, The Weeknd quickly agreed and moved out of the house, donating it to the show for a few months.
'I had to stay in character. I took my dog and we lived in another house. My home belonged to the show,' The Weeknd said.
So it turns out Lily-Rose Depp's character actually resides in Abel Tesfaye's $70-million, 33,000-square-foot mansion, which the singer bought two years ago. The luxurious property was redecorated for the show, but viewers are still able to get a glimpse of how The Weeknd actually lives. Unfortunately, the star's movie theater, gym, and indoor pool are not featured in the series.
But even though The Weeknd made this huge sacrifice, donating his own home for the show, it apparently didn't save The Idol from the scathing reviews from viewers and critics alike, who believe that the singer was filming the whole thing just to feed his own enormous ego.
The second episode of The Idol is scheduled to release on HBO on June 11, 2023.
Source: W Magazine.