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"There's nothing sexy about it," the singer -- whose real name is Abel Tesfaye -- told GQ about his character Tedros' graphic scene with co-star Lily-Rose Depp.
The Weeknd is addressing a controversial sex scene from the most recent episode of the HBO series, "The Idol."
Episode 2 featured a 10-minute graphic sex scene between Tedros (The Weeknd) and Jocelyn (Lily-Rose Depp) that had viewers cringing. In the scene, Jocelyn, an aspiring pop star, sits on a bed, blindfolded, while Tedros, a club owner and possible sex cult leader, gives her explicit instructions on what to do with her body.
In an interview with GQ, The Weeknd -- whose real name is Abel Tesfaye -- defended the disturbing scene, and described sex in the series as "gluttonous."
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View Story"There's nothing sexy about it," Tesfaye said, noting that they used the 1992 film "Basic Instinct" as a "reference" for the series.
"How ever you're feeling watching that scene, whether it's discomfort, or you feel gross, or you feel embarrassed for the characters," he continued. "It's all those emotions adding up to: This guy is in way over his head, this situation is one where he is not supposed to be here."
Tesfaye went on to share thoughts about his character, calling Tedros a "douchebag" and "such a loser."
"You look at him, and this is a score -- Jocelyn might be the biggest score he's ever had. It's very obvious," he told GQ. "He's over-indulging, he walks into this house looking around like, 'Goddamn, am I way over my head? This can be the biggest job I've ever done.' Whatever it is that he's doing."
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View Story"Even the sex, it's so gluttonous. Especially in episode 2," he added. "'Gluttony' is the only word I can think of [to describe it]. He can't believe he's there. He comes off like such a loser. Those moments are the humanity that you find in a psychopath, the chink in his armor."
Tesfaye said "there's nothing really mysterious or hypnotizing" about his character, noting that everything about his appearance was intentional. "We did that on purpose with his look, his outfits, his hair -- the guy’s a douchebag. You can tell he cares so much about what he looks like, and he thinks he looks good. But then you see these weird moments of him alone -- he rehearses, he's calculated. And he needs to do that, or he has nothing, he's pathetic. Which is true of a lot of people who are a fish out of water, put into these scenarios."
"The Idol" airs new episodes every Sunday on HBO.
