After ‘The Idol,' Abel Tesfaye's new movie ‘Hurry Up Tomorrow' brought ‘joy back into filmmaking'

Winnipeg Free Press

28-04-2025

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Abel Tesfaye has always known he wanted to pursue a career in cinema. He sees his meteoric rise to fame as one of today's biggest pop superstars under the moniker The Weeknd as a detour to make that happen.
Nearly two years after he made his acting debut with HBO's 'The Idol,' which he co-created with Sam Levinson, Tesfaye said his latest experimental musical film which also stars Jenna Ortega and Barry Keoghan 'brought the joy back into filmmaking.'
'Hurry Up Tomorrow,' a Lionsgate release hitting theaters May 16, is a kind of companion piece to the final album of the same name released earlier this year in the artist's record-breaking trilogy.
Along with director Trey Edward Shults, Tesfaye, 35, spoke with The Associated Press about retiring The Weeknd, losing his voice onstage in 2022 and lessons learned from making 'The Idol.'
The interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.
AP: How has cinema and long-form storytelling through film influenced you as an artist?
TESFAYE: Cinema, for me, it's always been my number one passion. And then I happened to sing and make music and it kind of felt like a little detour, a little cheat code to kind of get into this.
I always wanted to make movies and I always want to make music with movies. You always kind of hear and see the DNA of cinema in my albums and my music videos, my performances and my stage. So it's always just been a part of me.
AP: You come in with this very vulnerable, personal project, and you enlist Trey to make it. How did you guys navigate that and why did you trust him?
TESFAYE: Well, first and foremost, I was a fan of his work. So I knew that he was gonna, whatever I gave him, he's gonna make something incredible. But when we met, we just were kind of inseparable. We became really, really close friends and family. And the trust just came natural after that. It's like no one else can tell the story but Trey. So it was very easy for me.
SHULTS: For me too, it was like my first movie I made for $30,000 with literal family members acting in it and friends in it. It was this beautiful, magical experience and I told myself going forward, doing bigger projects, I only wanna work with humans that I truly feel connected to and you feel that kismet good energy connection and when I met Abel, I felt that. And it was just natural and organic and he was a genuine fan and I could tell his genuine trust and like wanting to embolden me and try to make this my own film. And I just got crazy inspired.
AP: Did you always see this as the third part in the trilogy?
TESFAYE: It was always the third part, yeah. I didn't know what I wanted to say at the time, but I knew I was making some sort of saga. But that was more just for myself. I kind of wanted to establish that I wanted to make something that can end a story. And lo and behold, something actually happened to me that I felt like, whatever I had in store, whatever plans I had prior, threw it out the window aocused 110% on this story.
AP: How did what happened change your understanding of you as an artist? You said cinema has always been the goal. Do you feel like it kind of helped you see your priorities in some ways?
TESFAYE: Absolutely. I mean I was juggling a million things at the time, you know, and I was on tour, dealing with personal stuff as well. But that's happened before. I was able to still rely on my super power. You know, I can go on stage and it's this cathartic experience with the fans. I can shut my world off for an hour and a half, two hours and just lose myself in my performance. And when it got to a point where the lines were blurring, it was affecting my stage performance — people spend a lot of money to come to these shows. They save up for a year, and it got a point where, oh my God, I can't give them what they want, my voice is failing me. And I knew at that moment, I needed to sit down and figure out what was going on up there. Because it wasn't a physical injury.
AP: Did that influence your decision to retire The Weeknd?
TESFAYE: That kind of helped it.
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AP: So now you're bringing yourself? Abel is who you want people to know?
TESFAYE: It's not even that. I mean, I've always been Abel. The Weeknd's always been a performance. I'm gonna be super hyperbolic here a little bit, but it felt like I had nothing else to say. That's what it kind of felt like to me. I was on stage and it's like I've said everything I can say as this person, and now it's time for me to take that next step. And this film was kind of like that guiding light for me.
AP: Were there any lessons from 'The Idol' that you took into this project?
TESFAYE: Yeah, I mean, naturally you learn. That was the first thing we had ever done. You always learn. You're working with great, great artists at the time and I'm still really close with everyone from the set. But it was a learning experience.
This felt a little bit, had a little more joy making it. Felt a little but more personal. 'Idol' didn't really feel like mine at the time. This one felt very much personal and I'm saying this now, that Trey really brought that, and Jenna, of course, brought the joy back into filmmaking. Like, 'Yeah, I do want to do this. This is great.' (Laughs)