For his W Mag cover story, Abel “The Weeknd” Tesfaye got real about the behind-the-scenes struggles in reshooting his upcoming HBO series The Idol.

“Film and TV is a new creative muscle for me,” Tesfaye told W. “I don't release my music until I think it is great. Why would this be any different? … I realized that I need to know that I've made the best version of whatever I'm making. It was a challenge to redo The Idol, and, in truth, I sacrificed my health and home to make it work. So, let's say it comes out and it's f***ing horrible. I still know I did my absolute best. From what I've seen, the show is great. Everything is a risk: When you've done the best you can, I would call that a happy ending.”

While it's a lot of pressure, The Weeknd doesn't mind the challenge.

“I like when all the odds are against me. I've always been an underdog — in the beginning, the music business was not easy. I had to fight to get to the top of the mountain.”

Alongside The Weeknd, his co-star Lily Rose-Depp and co-director Sam Levinson were also interviewed as Rose-Depp also appears on the cover. Originally The Idol was directed by Amy Seimetz. It was later announced in April 2022, that Levinson would be taking over and the show would be retooling. Levinson also reportedly “scrapped the nearly finished $54-$75 million project to rewrite and reshoot the entire thing.” The filming was supposed to take two to three months but later took five.

“Quitting the show wasn't an option for Abel or me: It was a dream that we had together, and we had to see it through,” Levinson told W. “If we were going to reshoot from the beginning, I knew it had to be for less money. Sitting in Abel's house, looking around at the 40,000 square feet, I said, ‘It's stunning here —you can't buy production design like this. What if we shoot it here?' Abel put down his drink and said, ‘Do you have insurance?' I said yes. And he said, ‘I'm OK with it.'”

The Idol will hit HBO on June 4. Take a look at the trailer below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gafzgRqqHJw