Lily-Rose Depp Defended The ‘Provocative’ Sex Scenes On ‘The Idol’

The Idol is coming to an end this Sunday, but the discourse will last forever. The HBO series has been met with mockery for its cringe and “worst” in TV history sex scenes (and weird pronunciations of “carte blanche”), but star Lily-Rose Depp believes the criticism is unfair.

“For me, whole character and the show 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,” she told Vogue Australia in a co-interview with singer and co-star Troye Sivan.

Depp “never felt more respected and more safe on a set, honestly. And I think the trust that we all built with each other, you [Sivan] and I, and [creator Sam Levinson] and I, and Abel [Tesfaye] 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.” She added, “I think we live in a highly sexualized world. I think that’s an interesting thing to explore.”

She’s right. That is an interesting thing to explore — as long as this isn’t the explorer.