Hank Azaria defends 'The Idol' amid controversy (original) (raw)

Hank Azaria defends The Idol amid controversy: 'From the outside, that appears like chaos'

The actor says there was "tremendous respect, collaboration, feedback, and checking in" on the set of the polarizing HBO drama.

Published on June 12, 2023 06:01PM EDT

Hank Azaria is defending HBO's controversial music industry drama The Idol, which recently debuted to a polarizing reception after going through a tumultuous production process.

In a new interview with The Independent, the actor — who plays a music manager working with, and making questionable decisions about, Lily-Rose Depp's troubled pop star — had nothing but complimentary things to say about showrunner Sam Levinson, the creator of Euphoria who took over directing duties on The Idol when The Girlfriend Experience's Amy Seimetz left the project.

Levinson and co-creator/star Abel "The Weeknd" Tesfaye reportedly felt that the A24-produced drama had too much of a "female perspective" under Seimetz, and as a result the show underwent massive reshoots. Those reshoots led to a now-infamous Rolling Stone exposé that Azaria, 59, says did not reflect his experience on the series.

"I can understand how, from a distance, especially if you're the person in charge of putting out script pages that day or making sure the right actor has the right wardrobe, that you would see it as chaos," he told The Independent. But he found Levinson's process to be "organic," describing scenes that were completely improvised and recalling, for example, being told to enter a scene he was not originally intended to be in.

Hank Azaria on 'The Idol'. HBO

"From the outside, that appears like chaos," Azaria said. "From the inside, it's thrillingly creative, especially when there's a guy who's really watching what you're doing, and really trying to help you bring out the best version of that."

Azaria also refuted allegations of The Idol's sex scenes devolving into "rape fantasies" as the show was overhauled.

"I wasn't involved in any of the sexual shenanigans in [_The Idol_]," he said. "But I can tell you that there was tremendous respect, collaboration, feedback, and checking in from Sam about whether everybody was comfortable with what was going on." He added, "I understand anybody being daunted or triggered by what they might be seeing. That's understandable. All I can say is in making it, a lot of care was taken with everybody."

The Idol airs Sundays at 9 p.m. ET/ PT on HBOand streams on Max.

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