Abel Tesfaye On Hurry Up Tomorrow, His Last Project as The Weeknd

It’s been 15 years since Abel Tesfaye logged onto YouTube and anonymously uploaded three songs under the username “xoxxxoooxo.” The moody R&B tracks, which featured the Toronto native’s haunting vocals as he contemplated self-destruction through drugs, parties, and casual romantic encounters, would go on to become part of the first trilogy of EPs under The Weeknd. The stage name and performance project developed into both a vehicle for Tesfaye’s global superstardom—and, according to the artist, who spoke to W while promoting his new film, Hurry Up Tomorrow, something of a prison.

Tesfaye has been teasing the end of The Weeknd since at least 2023, when he told this magazine that his final three albums, another trilogy, would be his last under the moniker. “I’m going through a cathartic path right now,” he said at 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 major stab at that death-and-rebirth life cycle was with the HBO series The Idol, which he co-created with Reza Fahim and Euphoria’s Sam Levinson. Starring as music industry sleaze Tedros alongside Lily-Rose Depp’s pop star Jocelyn, Tesfaye poured himself into the role, an experience which left him torn between identities. After a real-life Weeknd concert that production filmed for a scene in The Idol, Tesfaye lost his voice, an all too on-the-nose metaphor for his feeling that as The Weeknd, he had little left to say.

But he still had a final chapter to close out. In January, he released his final album as The Weeknd, Hurry Up Tomorrow, bookending the whole project in a neat coda (the last song on the album has an outro that leads into the very first song on his first EP, “High For This,” in a sort of musical ouroboros).

To accompany the album, he also co-wrote and starred in a surrealist film of the same name. Tapping Waves director Trey Edward Shults to helm the story, Tesfaye plays a version of The Weeknd in a genre-defying project that encompasses the themes, stories, and narratives—both true and fictional—that have surrounded the singer over the last 15 years. “It’s definitely a conversation piece,” Tesfaye told W ahead of the film’s release on May 16. Hurry Up Tomorrow also stars Barry Keoghan as The Weeknd’s manager and Jenna Ortega as Anima, his love interest, obsessed fan, and symbol of another part of his psyche.

Below, Tesfaye and Shults discuss the film’s origins, casting, and what they hope audiences take away from it:

What made Barry and Jenna right for these roles?

Abel Tesfaye: Aside from them being some of the most talented people I’ve ever met—Barry, I’ve known for a while. I always knew that if Barry said yes, he would be Lee.

Trey Edward Shults: Honestly, I was like, Barry seems a little young. I don’t know if I’m going to buy him as your manager. Then everyone was like, “Trust me, just come meet him.” The second I saw these two guys in a room, their chemistry, I was like, ‘Oh my, say less.’ Then Barry agreed to do the movie without the script.

A.T.: Our mantra is to work with people who genuinely want to work with you. I knew that I could trust him and feel safe in the scene. I can make mistakes, and he’ll be there coaching me through it. That’s the dynamic in the film, too.

T.E.S.: Maybe a more toxic version.

A.T.: But you still love the character. I don’t think anybody in this film is somebody you hate. There is no real villain.

T.E.S.: Jenna was also Abel’s idea. She’s one of the greatest actors I’ve ever worked with.

A.T.: We say it a lot, but she’s doing a lot of heavy lifting in the third act.

T.E.S.: She puts the movie on her shoulders for a minute. Without her performance, that third act’s not working.

A.T.: I love how prepared she was, but also willing to just take big swings. The film lends itself to experimenting and trying ambitious ideas.

Abel, there’s a scene where you take an elevator to a basement with a monster, straight out of a horror movie. What inspired that?

A.T.: That was not acting, by the way. They just pushed me in there, into the dark.

T.E.S.: He’s literally lighting the scene [with his iPhone], because he’s holding our only lights. That’s a section in the movie where we’re playing with whether it’s a dream or reality. A lot of this movie is about a need for self-reflection, confrontation, and battling your own soul.

A.T.: The whole film feels like a thrill in that way. There are horror elements, but there are no jump scares. Still, you’re grabbing your seat from the beginning.

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

A.T.: I don’t want to sound cliché, but it’s definitely an experience. It’s something that people should go see on the biggest screen possible. [Sound designer] Johnnie Burn, who’s a legend at what he does, said it was the biggest file he’s ever worked on.

T.E.S.: Quadrupled Zone of Interest. [Burn was also the sound designer on that film.] The dream is always to try to make something that feels fresh, different, something you haven’t quite seen before. Hopefully, it can be a rich, experiential, roller-coaster ride. If you want to have a good conversation about it with a friend after, there’s a lot of deeper symbolism and psychology going on. We just wanted to make something that felt bold and singular.

A.T.: It’s definitely a conversation piece. You’ll feel something for sure—hopefully it’s not hate. [Laughs]

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