Troye Sivan’s The Idol confession: ‘It’s easier to be a pop star than a movie star’

Singer Troye Sivan brought personal experience to his role in raunchy HBO series The Idol: ‘What has kept me really sane is that at my core, I feel like a gay, Jewish Australian.’

Troye Sivan in The Idol. Picture: Foxtel

The raunchy HBO series about the music industry, The Idol, created by Euphoria’s Sam Levinson, generated a huge buzz in Cannes. The series’ star Lily-Rose Depp, Johnny Depp’s daughter, was on the Croisette and gave few interviews while her co-star, Canadian singer Abel “The Weeknd” Tesfaye, reportedly gave none.

However, affable Australian Troye Sivan, 27, made himself available. His participation is relevant as he is a genuine pop star, even if he is not as world-famous as Depp’s character, Jocelyn, in the series.

“I definitely see moments in Jocelyn and in her team that I recognise, the good and the bad,” Sivan says. “But thankfully, my life looks nothing like hers – for the most part.” He says he recognises “the hullabaloo, the small silly stuff, like having a bunch of people around during the day who are faffing and carrying on”.

Sivan plays Xander, Jocelyn’s creative director and best friend. We first see Jocelyn as she is recovering from a breakdown following her mother’s death, and is planning a comeback, although tickets for her upcoming show are not selling as fast as they used to.

A Vanity Fair writer is invited to watch rehearsals for her new video, World Class Singer, and her manager, Chaim (Hank Azaria), locks the shoot’s intimacy co-ordinator in the bathroom, in order to continue with revealing moments. But even Chaim is shocked when an explicit photo of Jocelyn goes viral on social media.

Jocelyn, however, is unfazed and is more concerned that the new single is not up to scratch. When she hooks up with charismatic impresario Tedros (The Weeknd) she listens to his advice regarding her delivery including, “You’ve gotta sing like you know how to f..k”. Tedros is broke and has his own agenda – he wants to collaborate with Jocelyn and brings his own posse to her Bel-Air mansion, suggesting it would be easier to live together.

Comparisons have been made between Jocelyn and Britney Spears, although Sivan cites Levinson’s words. “This is a fictional story; they’re not telling someone else’s story,” he says. “But like I said, I do recognise the kind of craziness that surrounds a star of that level. I have seen that from afar.”

“I do think it’s easier to be a pop star,” says Sivan. “I think music is easier in general.”

Sivan first gained recognition as a child YouTube personality and by appearing on successive Channel 7 Perth Telethons, most famously singing a duet with Guy Sebastian in 2006.

In 2013 he signed with EMI Australia and several of his singles made the Billboard charts, with Youth from his debut album, Blue Neighbourhood, peaking at number 23. His second studio album, 2018’s Bloom, included lead single My My My!, which became his second number one single on the Billboard Dance Club Songs chart.

Sivan’s first acting role was at the age of 12 when he played the young Wolverine in 2009’s X-Men Origins. He went on to play the title role in the 2010 South African film Spud alongside John Cleese. He appeared in Joel Edgerton’s Boy Erased and received a Golden Globe nomination for composing the film’s song, Revelation. Last year he starred in the American comedy drama Three Months, available on Paramount+.

Does he think it’s easier being a pop star or a movie star? “I do think it’s easier to be a pop star. I think music is easier in general. Maybe it’s just because, for me, it comes much more naturally. The thing with music is that you can’t really be wrong. People might not like it, but I can confidently say I wrote it, this is my perspective, it’s my truth and this is the thing that I want to make.”

He adds with a chuckle: “I think you can be bad as an actor. You can mess it up. That’s always my biggest fear.”

Born in South Africa, Sivan moved to Perth with his family when he was two. He had wanted to study at WAAPA (the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts) but as he was already working at the time, he wasn’t eligible. “I haven’t really trained as an actor. I did a little bit during The Idol.”

He aims to keep a balance between working as an actor and as a singer-songwriter.

“I feel like the luckiest actor in the world because I can’t imagine a more stressful existence than not knowing what your next job is going to be. And, you know, having to take a role that maybe you’re not obsessed with, because you haven’t worked in a while.

“I feel lucky to have music as my consistent day job. Acting for me will forever be something that feels like it’s going to challenge me. That’s when I’m like, ‘Hmm, maybe if they’ll have me on, I’ll give it a go’.”

The Idol is in some ways about image creation. At the series press conference, Depp remarked that we never really know the person behind a celebrity’s famous image.

“It’s really interesting,” says Sivan. “At a huge festival like this, maybe because it’s so surreal, I’m hyper aware of the cameras and stuff like that. I do think that people put on a front of some sort. And fair enough, whether it’s to protect themselves, or whether it’s to just portray themselves in a certain way. I do think people are obsessed, myself included, with these people we have idolised our entire lives and grown up listening to or watching. I want to know what they’re really like. That’s why we all love reality TV so much. It’s such a huge part of the culture, for better or for worse. If I wasn’t in this show, I would 100 per cent want to watch it.”

Living in Los Angeles has given Sivan an insight into the excesses of the entertainment industry, but he says he has managed to keep a level head.

Having been in the public eye from an early age, Sivan is clearly smart and talented, and values the security of his family life.

“What has kept me really sane is that at my core, I feel like a gay, Jewish Australian,” he says. “Those are all things that are really important to me. My family is embedded in the Jewish community of Melbourne where they moved a few years ago, and when I go home, I just feel completely myself, like the self that I’ve always been since the day I was born. That’s been something that I really, really cherish.”

Sivan aims to spend half his time between Melbourne and Los Angeles, where he has maintained a base for a decade. Living in Los Angeles has given him an insight into the excesses of the entertainment industry, but he says he has managed to keep a level head.

“It’s discipline, or maybe I’m kind of risk-averse by nature,” he says. “I don’t like bungee jumping and stuff like that, I hate rollercoasters. Even driving a car makes me kind of anxious. I would rather have a bit more of a chill existence.”

He loved working with Depp. “She is a super talent and an inspiration to be around,” he says. “I’m really grateful that I have been through this experience with her.”

So who are his favourite real-life pop stars? “Someone who is on her way to superstardom is Rosalia and I’m really super inspired by her,” he says. “I don’t know if Amy Winehouse was pop, but she’s one of my all-time favourites. Then of course if we’re talking about pop greats there’s Kylie, Britney and Madonna. I’m gay, like, I love it all.”

When creating his own music, Sivan says the process is different every time.

“I sometimes do the really cliched thing of, like, being in the shower and I quickly step out and hit record on my phone and record a melody. Sometimes I work with a producer and they play some chords and then just hope that something comes. To me, songwriting feels like magic, because it’s this thing where I could write absolutely nothing one day and then go to the same room the next day with the same group of people and something happens. You’ve got to follow it and be grateful. You can’t force it.”

Has he kept in contact with Hugh Jackman since they worked together on X-Men Origins?

“I loved working with Hugh. I was so young and I think he took me seriously, or at least he pretended to in a really nice way. I once saw him at an event and I went up and said hello. I was like, I don’t know if you remember me, but I played you when you were younger in X-Men Origins: Wolverine. And he clicked, and it was a really nice moment.”

The Idol streams on Foxtel from June 5.