Jane Adams says ‘The Idol’ haters ‘refuse to change the narrative’: ‘You are not listening’

Christopher Rosen
·5 min read
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HBO’s controversial series “The Idol” ended on Sunday night with a bit of a twist. After spending four episodes convincing the audience that shady pimp and club owner Tedros (Abel “The Weeknd” Tesfaye) was successfully indoctrinating global pop superstar Joclyn (Lily-Rose Depp) into his wannabe cult, the Sam Levinson series revealed the opposite. It was Joclyn who was in charge of their relationship the entire time, using Tedros to help her break out of a creative rut – all while making Tedros think he was the one in control.

But the subversion of expectations – “The Idol” ends its first (final?) season with Joclyn and Tedros together again but with the power dynamics of their union flipped – didn’t change the narrative surrounding the polarizing show. “‘The Idol’ has concluded its five-episode run, and there’s one question I can’t help but ask: What was the point of all of that?” wrote the New York Times, one of several critical pans the finale received. Overall, the series has just a 20 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

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For star Jane Adams – an Emmy Award nominee for her performance on a more culturally acceptable HBO series, “Hacks” – the critical pile-on is uncomfortably tied to the pre-release narrative surrounding the show. Months before its debut, Rolling Stone published an expose that cited multiple unnamed sources who claimed the collaboration between Levinson and Tesfaye was toxic and that the entire production was a “shitshow” – particularly after the original director, Amy Seimetz, left “The Idol” over alleged creative differences.

“The low Rotten Tomatoes score of ‘The Idol’ is another laugh—it’s like, ‘Okay, whatever, guys,’” Adams told Vanity Fair in a frank interview published Monday. “People don’t have to love it. I just find it oppressive—the kind of, ‘Well, you shouldn’t like it because….’”

Part of the Rolling Stone report alleged a major issue with the series was that Seimetz wanted to focus on the female perspective, while Levinson – after taking over as director – pushed in the opposite direction. “It was a show about a woman who was finding herself sexually, turned into a show about a man who gets to abuse this woman and she loves it,” one source claimed.

But in interviews and statements, most of the key actresses on the show – including Adams – pushed back on that narrative. “Never have I felt more supported or respected in a creative space, my input, and opinions more valued. Working with Sam is a true collaboration in every way – it matters to him, more than anything, not only what his actors think about the work, but how we feel performing it,” Depp said in a statement after the Rolling Stone piece went live. “He hires people whose work he esteems and has always created an environment in which I felt seen, heard, and appreciated.”

Said Da’Vine Joy Randolph of the allegations in an interview published by Vulture last month, “I just didn’t connect with any of it. I’ve worked enough in this industry, though I have a very young career, that the moment I would have felt like, ‘Hmmm, something’s wrong …’ I would have been like, ‘Get me out of here!’ I’m grown! I’m in my 30s! I get it, rumors, blah, blah, blah. But I promise you, I would not have done this project at this stage in my life if that was the case.”

Speaking to Vanity Fair, Adams said what frustrated her most is that those who criticized “The Idol” and its production ignored the perspectives of the actors who made the show. 

“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!”

Adams, who credited Levinson for her performance in “The Idol” – one of the parts of the show even critics singled out as a high point – said a lot has changed since she broke out in the controversial Todd Solondz drama “Happiness.” 

“You couldn’t even make that movie today,” Adams said of the project, which was dropped by its distributor because of its themes. “[There were] lines around the block in New York when it was still theaters, and the whole town talked about it. But that was when the liberal press celebrated things that upset people.”

Perhaps thinking of “The Idol,” she added, “Over the last few years, it’s been a weird experience that makes me a little sad. People in that world, some of them, have turned into the scolding schoolmarms that I wanted to be an actress to get away from.”

All episodes of “The Idol” are streaming on Max.

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