Lily-Rose Depp has clarified that her character Jocelyn in The Idol is not based on her real-life experiences as Johnny Depp's daughter.
The HBO and A24 drama, co-created by Abel "The Weeknd" Tesfaye, Reza Fahim, and Sam Levinson, revolves around Jocelyn, a renowned pop star seeking a comeback after a public breakdown triggered by her mother's death.
Speaking to EW about her character on The Idol, Lily-Rose emphasizes that her upbringing differs significantly from Jocelyn's, despite growing up with famous parents.
"The backstory that we thought about a lot for Jocelyn is that she's somebody who's been working basically since she could talk," Lily-Rose says.
"She was a child actress, she had a mother who was really pushy in that way and really kind of bred her to be this trained performer, and that was her upbringing. That was certainly not mine."
While she can draw on her industry exposure, she appreciates exploring the unique fame-driven aspects of Jocelyn's character. Lily-Rose admires Jocelyn's self-awareness and refusal to conform to the expectation of relatability often prevalent in celebrity culture.
"There's something that my character says in one of the trailers, and you haven't seen this episode yet, but she says, 'There's nothing about me that's relatable,'" Lily-Rose says. "[I love] the self-awareness that she has."
The Idol, consisting of five episodes, airs Sundays on HBO and streams on Max.