The Weeknd downplays 'ridiculous' Rolling Stone article blasting new show The Idol as 'torture porn'

 The Weeknd has fully addressed Rolling Stone's article blasting his new series The Idol as 'torture porn' after hitting back.

The 33-year-old talented star - born Abel Makkonen Tesfay - is featured on the cover of the latest edition of Vanity Fair where he finally addressed that expose and the departure of the director of the HBO series which also stars Lily Rose-Depp.

Back in March, Rolling Stone quoted insiders on the series who talked about on the fly changes to the script, unrealistic expectations and graphic sex scenes.

The insider said: 'It was like, "What is this? What am I reading here? It was like sexual torture porn."'

At the time The Weeknd responded by posting a clip from the upcoming series with a clip from the show, captioning it '.@RollingStone did we upset you?'

Not holding back: The Weeknd has fully addressed Rolling Stone's article blasting his new series The Idol - which also stars Lily Rose-Depp -  as 'torture porn' after hitting back

Candid: The 33-year-old talented star - born Abel Makkonen Tesfay - is featured on the cover of the latest edition of Vanity Fair where he finally addressed that expose and the departure of the director of the HBO series

In the clip, the artist was seen with costars Lily, 23, and Dan Levy speaking about the irrelevancy of the stalwart musical publication.

The Blinding Lights vocalist, in character in the role of Tedros, seated next to Depp's character Jocelyn, asked, 'Rolling Stone, aren't they a little irrelevant?'

In the scene, Depp's character Lily said, 'I don't know, I think it's maybe past its prime,' as the characters discussed how her character had eclipsed the publication's in social media followers.

Now in the Vanity Fair article, Abel has responded to the article and explained his reasoning behind his tweet.

He said: 'I thought the article was ridiculous. I wanted to give a ridiculous response to it.'

Vanity Fair also notes that Abel had taken the Rolling Stone story as an indictment of his character as he described what he took to be its subtext: 'These are rapists trying to make a rape fantasy.'

The series was set to originally be directed by Amy Seimetz before she was replaced by Euphoria's Sam Levinson which led to much speculation.

Abel addressed the departure as he said: 'I actually really loved working with Amy, and I’m sure she’s reading all this being like, "Why am I being thrown into this?"'

Back in March, Rolling Stone quoted insiders on the series who talked about on the fly changes to the script, unrealistic expectations and graphic sex scenes as the insider said: 'It was like, "What is this? What am I reading here? It was like sexual torture porn"'

At the time The Weeknd responded by posting a clip from the upcoming series with a clip from the show, captioning it '.@RollingStone did we upset you?' 

In the clip from the forthcoming series, the artist was seen with costars Lily and Dan Levy speaking about the irrelevancy of the stalwart musical publication

The Blinding Lights vocalist, in character in the role of Tedros, seated next to Depp's character Jocelyn, asked, 'Rolling Stone, aren't they a little irrelevant?'

In the scene, Depp's character Lily said, 'I don't know, I think it's maybe past its prime,' as the characters discussed how her character had eclipsed the publication's in followers 

He claimed that logistical difficulties in addition to scheduling conflicts forced them to make the change up adding: 'Shows get reshot every day.'

It was also claimed that the show was rewritten to feature his character more as Abel insisted he had nothing to do with it.

He explained to Vanity Fair: 'I know it’s easy for people to be like, "Oh, he wanted to be the star.""

 One very surprising thing from the Vanity Fair article was that Abel didn't believe his 2020 track Blinding Lights would be a hit.

He told the magazine: 'I thought ‘Blinding Lights’ was gonna be a flop.'

The series was set to originally be directed by Amy Seimetz before she was replaced by Euphoria's Sam Levinson which led to much speculation, Abel (pictured in December) addressed the departure as he said: 'I actually really loved working with Amy, and I’m sure she’s reading all this being like, "Why am I being thrown into this?"'

One very surprising thing from the Vanity Fair article was that Abel (seen performing at Coachella in in April 2022) didn't believe his 2020 track Blinding Lights would be a hit. He told the magazine: 'I thought ‘Blinding Lights’ was gonna be a flop'

Coming soon: The Idol premieres on HBO beginning Sunday, June 4

Surely the pop megastar was glad to be wrong as it was the longest charting song on the Billboard Hot 100 of all time with a total of 90 weeks on the chart - despite the fact the Grammys snubbed the song.

As a result, back in March the Guinness Book Of World Records  named The Weeknd as the most popular artist in the world.

He set two new Guinness World Records, most monthly listeners on Spotify at 111.4 million and he's also the first artist to reach 100 million monthly listeners on Spotify.

And that's not all. The Weeknd's 2020 track Blinding Lights is the most streamed track on Spotify of all time, with more than 3.5 billion listens.

The Idol premieres on HBO beginning Sunday, June 4.