Lily-Rose Depp defends raunchy sex scenes in ‘The Idol’: ‘We live in a highly sexualized world’

Zack Sharf Digital News Director “The Idol” actor Jane Adams called out “feminists” in a recent Vanity Fair interview for persisting that the controversial HBO series exploited its female actors on set when many of them, from Lily-Rose Depp to Da’Vine Joy Randolph and Adams herself, have stressed otherwise. “What is amazing to me is no one’s listening—I’ve not seen that before in all my days, such a dogged ‘We refuse to change the narrative,’” Adams said. “I especially want to say to all the feminists, ‘Go fuck yourself.’ All these women that I’m working with are talking about their experience and you’re not listening. You’re not listening!”

The Idol, the HBO series from The Weeknd and Euphoria's Sam Levinson, brought its first season to an end last week. I thought it was quite bad, but found the internet pile-on was exaggerated, as they usually are.

“worst sex scenes in history.”“Continue to push the vision no matter how bumpy the journey,” Tesfaye, 33, told his fans in an Instagram post, seemingly referring to the show’s poor reception. Upon premiering at Cannes, “The Idol,” which Tesfaye created with Sam Levinson of “Euphoria” fame, was widely derided for its nudity, sex and directionless plot. “‘The Idol,’ or 50 SHADES OF TESFAYE: A Pornhub-homepage odyssey starring Lily-Rose Depp’s areolas and The Weeknd’s greasy rat tail,” a critic for the Gray Lady sneered after a viewing.“The show heavily exploits Lily … I hope she’s okay with it all because it comes off very exploitative,” another critic worried. The plot followed troubled pop princess Jocelyn (Lily-Rose Depp, 24, daughter of Johnny Depp) as she became involved in a weird and sex-filled relationship with self-help guru, club owner and cult leader Tedros (Tesfaye). The show regularly scandalized audiences, who cringed at its “nasty” sex scenes.Levinson doubled down after “The Idol” was criticized, defending his work as “revolutionary,” while others noted that the show is actually a lot tamer than earlier efforts, such as “True Blood.” “I think we live in a very sexualized world,” Levinson said.Depp also defended the show, telling Vogue Australia, “We know that we’re making something provocative and we are not shying away from that. That’s something I knew I was setting out to do from the beginning.

The Idol wrapped up its controversial first season on Sunday night, and The Weeknd took to social media to celebrate the bow of the HBO drama, which he starred in, co-created and produced with Euphoria creator Sam Levinson.

“The Idol’s” creator and star, Jocelyn’s (Lily-Rose Depp) about-face was part of the plan well before Sunday night’s finale. “Jocelyn is a very strategic and calculated person. She knows exactly what she wants, and she’s going to stop at nothing to get it,” Depp said in an HBO video breaking down Episode 5.

Alison Herman TV Critic In the end, “The Idol” was neither as offensive as its detractors claimed nor as “revolutionary” as co-creator Sam Levinson believed. Like so many works of art that too openly aim for provocation, the five episodeHBO drama got in its own way, passing off reductive clichés as radical transgression. Much of the discourse around the show has centered on sex, the most attention-grabbing of its themes. But flashy as its approach may be, how “The Idol” depicts nudity, kink and power dynamics is less indicative of the series’ core problems than its take on pop music and stardom — ostensibly its primary subjects and the center of season finale “Jocelyn Forever.” Even with such an abbreviated buildup, the episode still managed to underwhelm, offering neither shocking twists nor effective catharsis. For a show in part about fandom, “The Idol” failed to inspire one of its own.

SPOILER ALERT! This post contains details from the finale of HBO’s The Idol.

“For me, the whole character [Jocelyn] and the show [The Idol] and her arc was really a collaboration through and through. We know that we’re making something provocative and we are not shying away from that. That’s something I knew I was setting out to do from the beginning. I was never interested in making something puritanical. It’s okay if this show isn’t for everyone and that’s fine – I think all the best art is [polarizing]. I’ve never felt more respected and more safe on a set, honestly. And I think the trust that we all built with each other, Sam and I, and Abel and I, that can only make for a really safe-feeling set. So when it comes to the nudity and the risqué nature of the role, that to me was really intentional. That was really important to me and something that I was excited about doing. I’m not scared of it. I think we live in a highly sexualized world. I think that’s an interesting thing to explore.”

The Idol has received backlash for months for its nudity, sex scenes and portrayal of toxic masculinity, with many critics questioning its value. Now, the show’s star, Lily-Rose Depp, is defending the decisions of the show. «We know that we’re making something provocative and we are not shying away from that. That’s something I knew I was setting out to do from the beginning,» she tells  in an interview for the July cover story.

“The Idol” has been whipping up controversy due to its graphic OMG sex scenes, but star Lily-Rose Depp believes that it’s all being blown out of proportion.

For months now, critics on Twitter and elsewhere have challenged The Idol’s more explicit scenes, describing some of them as examples of toxic masculinity, rape culture and torture porn and questioning their value. Now, the show’s star, Lily-Rose Depp, has responded to those sentiments in an interview with Vogue Australia.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Lily-Rose Depp says the nudity on “The Idol” is “really intentional” and she was never uncomfortable stripping down on set to film the series’ numerous sex scenes. The HBO series has ignited controversy over the last four weeks due to its graphic content and frequent nudity. Depp is often at the center of the show’s most risqué scenes as the show’s lead character, a pop star named Jocelyn who falls under the control of a sinister nightclub owner (Abel ‘The Weeknd’ Tesfaye). “For me, the whole character and the show and her arc was really a collaboration through and through,” Depp recently told Vogue Australia. “We know that we’re making something provocative and we are not shying away from that. That’s something I knew I was setting out to do from the beginning. I was never interested in making something puritanical. It’s okay if this show isn’t for everyone and that’s fine — I think all the best art is [polarizing].”

Lily-Rose Depp and girlfriend 070 Shake’s relationship is heating up, a source exclusively reveals in the latest issue of Us Weekly.

Lily-Rose Depp is celebrating the love of her life: girlfriend 070 Shake!

Lily-Rose Depp showered girlfriend, rapper 070 Shake, with love on her birthday.

Despite its mixed reviews, HBO's The Idol has hooked fans and even led them to draw parallels between the lives of real pop stars and the show's storyline. But is the series based on a true story? On 4 June, the new Sam Levinson series introduced Lily-Rose Depp as Jocelyn, a rising pop star who embarks on a romance with Tedros, an enigmatic Los Angeles club owner and underground cult leader portrayed by Abel "The Weeknd" Tesfaye.

! star , 24, and her rumored girlfriend, rapper 070 Shake (nope, I don't know if you're supposed to say “oh-seven-oh” or “zero-seven-zero” or “seventy”) seem to be taking their relationship public. A bit of background on 070 Shake: The artist, whose real name is Danielle Balbuena, first gained attention from in 2018, and, in addition to contributing vocals to some of his tracks, was signed to his label. is a member of the 070 music collective, and released her debut album in 2020. If you're as curious as we are about the pair, read on for all the details we could find…January 2023: They connect at an unknown place and time.

Lily-Rose Depp was all smiles with her girlfriend Danielle Balbuena AKA 070 Shake, during a romantic outing in New York City. The 25-year-old rapper and the 24-year-old actress were spotted holding hands and having a casual conversation, following their emotional encounter at the Los Angeles airport on May 26 after she arrived from the Cannes Film Festival.The happy couple was photographed while spending some quality time in NYC.

Lily-Rose Depp has fallen head over heels!

Lily-Rose Depp has made a very public declaration of love. In honor of girlfriend 070 Shake's 26th birthday on Tuesday, the star took to her Instagram Story with a series of snaps of the two together. «Happy birthday Love of my life,» Depp wrote.