The crowd at Cannes Film Festival was pleased to see Johnny Depp make his return to acting, giving the actor a 7-minute standing ovation following the premiere of Jeanne du Barry. Some saw it as a controversial choice to have his first post-trial film open the festival, but he wasn’t the only member of his family stirring things up in France. His daughter Lily-Rose Depp was there promoting her own polarizing project in HBO’s upcoming series The Idol. If she was feeling the heat of any of the drama surrounding The Idol, you certainly couldn’t tell, because she seemed to be having the best time.
Lily-Rose Depp walked the red carpet at The Idol’s premiere May 22 with co-creators Sam Levinson (of Euphoria fame), The Weeknd (real name Abel Tesfaye) and Reza Fahim. The quartet looked thick as thieves as they stood for pictures at a photocall beforehand:
Big smiles were plastered on their faces, as Lily-Rose Depp wore a plunging black minidress that was complemented by her co-star’s all-black ensemble. Director Sam Levinson — who is already a controversial figure for Euphoria’s graphic content, including explicit sex scenes involving teenage characters — has received a ton of criticism from The Idol's crew members, who were allegedly furious about the increased raunchiness that was added to the series when he took over.
Sam Levinson inherited The Idol from Amy Seimetz, who had reportedly filmed all but a fifth of the series before she exited the project. The director chose to scrap the majority of that, shifting the narrative and ramping up the depravity of its characters with scenes that had crew members comparing it to “rape fantasy” and “torture porn.”
Lily-Rose Depp defended Sam Levinson amid the controversy, calling him the best director she’d ever worked for and saying she’d never felt “more supported or respected in a creative space.” That certainly seemed to come through at the photo op, as the actress seemed joined at the hip to the co-creators:
In The Idol, Lily-Rose Depp plays aspiring pop star Jocelyn, who — after suffering a nervous breakdown — becomes involved with The Weeknd’s self-help guru Tedros, who’s also the leader of a secret sex cult that mirrors the NXIVM scandal. The Weeknd reportedly thought the original script had too much of the female perspective, resulting in the controversial changes.
As far as appearing at Cannes with her father, it wasn’t just the controversy surrounding Johnny Depp’s film and Lily-Rose Depp’s series that they had in common. Just as the actor received several minutes of applause from the festival crowd, The Idol garnered a 5-minute standing ovation following its screening.
Audiences will have a chance to check out the scandalous series soon, as The Idol will make its debut at 9 p.m. ET Sunday, June 4, on HBO, and will also be available to stream with an HBO Max subscription (now branded as Max). Be sure to check out our 2023 TV schedule to see what other premieres are coming to TV and streaming soon.
