Abel Tesfaye Hopes You Don’t “Hate” ‘Hurry Up Tomorrow’

It’s been 15 years since Abel Tesfaye logged onto YouTube and anonymously uploaded 3 songs underneath the username “xoxxxoooxo.” The moody R&B tracks, which featured the Toronto local’s haunting vocals as he pondered self-destruction via medication, events, and informal romantic encounters, would pass directly to develop into a part of the primary trilogy of EPs underneath The Weeknd. The level identify and function undertaking advanced into each a car for Tesfaye’s international superstardom—and, in line with the artist, who spoke to W whilst selling his new movie, Hurry Up Tomorrow, one thing of a jail.

Tesfaye has been teasing the tip of The Weeknd since a minimum of 2023, when he informed this mag that his ultimate 3 albums, some other trilogy, can be his final underneath the moniker. “I’m going through a cathartic path right now,” he mentioned on the time. “It’s getting to a place where I’m getting ready to close The Weeknd chapter. I’ll still make music, maybe as Abel, maybe as The Weeknd. But I still want to kill The Weeknd. And I will. Eventually. I’m definitely trying to shed that skin and be reborn.”

His first main stab at that death-and-rebirth lifestyles cycle used to be with the HBO collection The Idol, which he co-created with Reza Fahim and Euphoria’s Sam Levinson. Starring as track trade sleaze Tedros along Lily-Rose Depp’s pop celebrity Jocelyn, Tesfaye poured himself into the position, an enjoy which left him torn between identities. After a real-life Weeknd live performance that manufacturing filmed for a scene in The Idol, Tesfaye misplaced his voice, an all too on-the-nose metaphor for his feeling that as The Weeknd, he had little left to mention.

But he nonetheless had a last bankruptcy to near out. In January, he launched his ultimate album as The Weeknd, Hurry Up Tomorrow, bookending the entire undertaking in a neat coda (the final music at the album has an outro that leads into the first actual music on his first EP, “High For This,” in a type of musical ouroboros).

To accompany the album, he additionally co-wrote and starred in a surrealist movie of the similar identify. Tapping Waves director Trey Edward Shults to helm the tale, Tesfaye performs a model of The Weeknd in a genre-defying undertaking that encompasses the subjects, tales, and narratives—each true and fictional—that experience surrounded the singer over the past 15 years. “It’s definitely a conversation piece,” Tesfaye informed W forward of the movie’s free up on May 16. Hurry Up Tomorrow additionally stars Barry Keoghan as The Weeknd’s supervisor and Jenna Ortega as Anima, his love pastime, obsessed fan, and image of some other a part of his psyche.

Below, Tesfaye and Shults talk about the movie’s origins, casting, and what they hope audiences remove from it:

What made Barry and Jenna proper for those roles?

Abel Tesfaye: Aside from them being one of the vital maximum proficient folks I’ve ever met—Barry, I’ve recognized for some time. I at all times knew that if Barry mentioned sure, he can be Lee.

Trey Edward Shults: Honestly, I used to be like, Barry turns out slightly younger. I don’t know if I’m going to shop for him as your supervisor. Then everybody used to be like, “Trust me, just come meet him.” The 2nd I noticed those two guys in a room, their chemistry, I used to be like, ‘Oh my, say less.’ Then Barry agreed to do the film with out the script.

A.T.: Our mantra is to paintings with individuals who essentially need to paintings with you. I knew that I may consider him and really feel protected within the scene. I will make errors, and he’ll be there training me via it. That’s the dynamic within the movie, too.

T.E.S.: Maybe a extra poisonous model.

A.T.: But you continue to love the nature. I don’t suppose any one on this movie is someone you hate. There isn’t any genuine villain.

T.E.S.: Jenna used to be additionally Abel’s thought. She’s one of the most largest actors I’ve ever labored with.

A.T.: We say it so much, however she’s doing a large number of heavy lifting within the 3rd act.

T.E.S.: She places the film on her shoulders for a minute. Without her efficiency, that 3rd act’s now not operating.

A.T.: I really like how ready she used to be, but in addition keen to only take large swings. The movie lends itself to experimenting and attempting bold concepts.

Abel, there’s a scene the place you are taking an elevator to a basement with a monster, directly out of a horror film. What impressed that?

A.T.: That used to be now not appearing, by way of the way in which. They simply driven me in there, into the darkish.

T.E.S.: He’s actually lights the scene [with his iPhone], as a result of he’s conserving our handiest lighting. That’s a piece within the film the place we’re enjoying with whether or not it’s a dream or fact. Numerous this film is ready a necessity for self-reflection, war of words, and struggling with your individual soul.

A.T.: The complete movie looks like a thrill in that method. There are horror parts, however there aren’t any bounce scares. Still, you’re grabbing your seat from the start.

Hurry Up Tomorrow turns out to defy categorization. How would you describe it?

A.T.: I don’t need to sound cliché, but it surely’s indubitably an enjoy. It’s one thing that folks will have to pass see at the greatest display screen imaginable. [Sound designer] Johnnie Burn, who’s a legend at what he does, mentioned it used to be the largest report he’s ever labored on.

T.E.S.: Quadrupled Zone of Interest. [Burn was also the sound designer on that film.] The dream is at all times to check out to make one thing that feels contemporary, other, one thing you haven’t reasonably noticed ahead of. Hopefully, it may be a wealthy, experiential, roller-coaster trip. If you wish to have to have a just right dialog about it with a chum after, there’s a large number of deeper symbolism and psychology happening. We simply sought after to make one thing that felt daring and singular.

A.T.: It’s indubitably a dialog piece. You’ll really feel one thing needless to say—confidently it’s now not hate. [Laughs]

T.E.S.: Hopefully any emotion however hate.