I loved that he wanted to start at a place of vulnerability. He wanted to explore this horrible thing that had happened to him. So I was like, if that’s just the jumping off point, if that’s where he’s down to go then oh, that’s exciting. What can we do with that?
Tesfaye: I think every idea you pitched, I was like, Yeah, let’s do it.
Shults: I was like, he’s never gonna let us make this. I don’t know what other pop star in the world would want to do something like this. And then the fact that he was just down and excited by everything?
Was there a specific moment or scene in the script that you thought Abel might not be up for?
Shults: I wanted to make what I thought was an interesting character to explore that was neither purely good nor bad. Just hopefully a complex human being. And I thought having that as a character leading into a third act where, to me, it builds into…a therapy session. When you’re just meeting someone, and you’re having these ideas, and you’re gonna (laughs) kind of criticize their music and equate that to them as a human? And that they need to have a wake up call and grow? It’s bold stuff to send to someone. Especially someone like Abel, and think they’re going to go for that and want to explore that.
As the script was being written, the two of you had a long series of phone calls that you’ve described as “therapy sessions.” Who was giving who therapy?
Tesfaye: I think you were giving me therapy at first.
Shults: Probably. I call them therapy sessions because both of my parents are therapists, and I did a similar thing with Kelvin [Harrison Jr.] when we were doing Waves. For this, I just wanted to know more about [Abel] and more about his past and where he came from. And for me, that was huge to start imagining a character if [Abel had] made the wrong choices and surrounded himself with the wrong people, and what this alternate downward spiral trajectory could look like.
Was that cathartic for you to talk about, Abel?
Tesfaye: It was more cathartic when I saw the final product. I usually don’t like to watch myself on screen. That was the first time I felt like I didn’t see myself, if that makes sense. I got lost in it. There’s one true moment that really happened, which was the performance of me losing my voice. And I remember watching and just feeling a little uncomfortable because I’m facing this thing that happened to me, right?
How do you see the film and the album as being in conversation with one another?
Tesfaye: I was telling this story with this trilogy of albums, After Hours and Dawn FM, and I always knew I wanted to close the chapter [of The Weeknd]. That was prior to this incident happening to me. Usually something will happen and then it’ll inspire something. And it was like, this is the moment to close two chapters in my life: This cathartic moment to figure out what’s going on in my head and make this movie and answer all those questions, and to close this chapter of this persona I’ve been trying to wash away for a while. I was lucky enough to light that persona on fire, on 35 millimeter film, and watch it.