Lily-Rose Depp and The Weeknd in The Idol: What Happened Next

May 16, 2023 Updated October 14, 2026 5 min read

The story

Lily-Rose Depp at the Met Gala with Chanel, from her Instagram. Photo: Instagram / @lilyrose_depp

Let me clear up the headline first, because the internet never did: Lily-Rose Depp and The Weeknd were a couple only on HBO. In The Idol she played Jocelyn, a pop star on the edge of a breakdown, and he played Tedros, the club owner who gets into her life and then into her head. The show premiered on June 4, 2023, ran five episodes, and was cancelled that August. Three years on, it is worth asking who came out of it better. My answer is Lily-Rose, and by some distance.

Lily-Rose Depp in a photo from her Instagram

A famous last name, and a career that no longer needs it

Lily-Rose Depp was born on May 27, 1999, to Johnny Depp and the French singer and actress Vanessa Paradis, and she is 27 now. She grew up between Los Angeles and France. Her younger brother, Jack Depp, has started his own career behind the camera.

Lily-Rose Depp portrait from her Instagram

Before The Idol, her filmography was the kind that festival programmers like: she played Isadora Duncan in The Dancer and appeared in Planetarium, Tusk, Yoga Hosers and Wolf. Then there is the fashion side. She has been a Chanel face since she was a teenager, including the No. 5 L’Eau campaign. A nepotism debate followed her for years. Here is my read: a last name can get you a meeting, but it can’t get you a decade with Chanel.

Lily-Rose Depp in the Chanel No. 5 L'Eau campaign

What The Idol was, and what Rolling Stone said about it

The Idol was co-created by Abel “The Weeknd” Tesfaye and Sam Levinson of Euphoria, and it aired on HBO. Tedros is a self-help guru and the leader of a modern-day cult. That makes for a very different love story than the trailer’s dance-floor shots suggest.

The Weeknd as Tedros in the same trailer. Photo: HBO, The Idol trailer (still)

The trouble started before anyone had seen an episode. In March 2023 Rolling Stone, citing anonymous people from the production, reported that the show had gone “wildly, disgustingly off the rails” after the original director, Amy Seimetz, left and Levinson took over and reshot it. HBO said the early episodes “did not meet HBO standards so we chose to make a change.” The Weeknd answered on March 1 with an unseen clip in which Tedros turns down a Rolling Stone cover for Jocelyn and calls the magazine “irrelevant”. His caption was “@rollingstone did we upset you?” (The magazine’s editor replied with two of its old covers of The Weeknd. Nobody won that round.)

Jocelyn, “the American dream”, in the trailer for The Idol. Photo: HBO, The Idol trailer (still)

The premiere at Cannes in May 2023 split the critics, and most reviews were harsh, especially about the writing. HBO cancelled the show on August 28, 2023. Its statement called The Idol “one of HBO’s most provocative original programs.” I have read a lot of network statements, and “provocative” was doing very heavy lifting in that one.

What Lily-Rose Depp actually said about the sex scenes

The old version of this story paraphrased her. Here is what she said herself, to Vogue Australia for its July 2023 cover: “When it comes to the nudity and the risqué nature of the role, that to me was really intentional.” And: “I’m not scared of it.” She also said “I was never interested in making something puritanical” and “It’s OK if this show isn’t for everyone.”

Lily-Rose Depp on the cover of i-D

About the set, she said: “I’ve never felt more respected and more safe on a set, honestly.” You can believe her or the anonymous sources, but only one of them put their name to it. What strikes me is that she never apologised for the role or blamed anyone for it. She said it was her choice, and she kept saying so after the cancellation.

Where they both are in 2026

For The Weeknd, the next big project was his own film, Hurry Up Tomorrow, with Jenna Ortega and Barry Keoghan, released through Lionsgate in May 2025 as the last part of the trilogy that began with After Hours and Dawn FM.

The Weeknd on the cover of GQ, from his Instagram, September 2026. Photo: Instagram / @theweeknd

Lily-Rose went straight from Jocelyn to Robert Eggers. She played Ellen Hutter in Nosferatu, which opened on Christmas Day 2024 and earned about $40 million over its five-day holiday opening, a record Christmas start for a horror film. She works with him again in Werwulf, with Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Willem Dafoe, which Focus Features will release on December 25, 2026. In September she was at TIFF for Alpha Gang, the Zellner brothers’ film about aliens posing as a 1950s biker gang, with Cate Blanchett, Chris Pine and Léa Seydoux. Her real relationship is with the musician 070 Shake. She confirmed it in 2023, and in March 2026 the two were still being photographed at lunch in Los Angeles.

So, about that headline couple. The Weeknd built a cult on screen and got a cancellation. His co-star got two Eggers films and a ticket to Toronto. If The Idol was a test of nerve, she passed, and she did it without giving the show’s critics a single apology to quote.

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Sources

Fact check

Rumor / Reality

The rumor

Claims that Depp and The Weeknd dated off screen: no source, never confirmed.
Rolling Stone's account of the set came from anonymous sources; HBO and the cast disputed it.

What we know

The Idol was co-created by Abel Tesfaye and Sam Levinson and aired on HBO in June–July 2023.
HBO cancelled the show after one season on August 28, 2023.
The Weeknd answered Rolling Stone's March 2023 report with a clip captioned "@rollingstone did we upset you?"
Depp called the nudity in the role "really intentional" (Vogue Australia, July 2023).
Depp has been in a relationship with 070 Shake since 2023.

Written by

Victoria Lane Editor-in-chief

“A rumor is not a story until we know what is actually true.”