‘The Idol’ Star Tells ‘Feminists’ Worried About Set Safety: ‘Go F— Yourself’

HBO’s The Idol came under a lot of fire for its explicit sexual content. This included worries about on-set safety during filming. Now, series actress Jane Adams has spoken out against “feminists” and critics, telling them, “Go f—yourself.” Speaking to Vanity Fair, Adams — who played non-nonsense record label executive Nikki Katz — said, “What is amazing to me is no one’s listening—I’ve not seen that before in all my days, such a dogged ‘We refuse to change the narrative.”

She then added, “I especially want to say to all the feminists, ‘Go f— yourself.’ All these women that I’m working with are talking about their experience and you’re not listening. You’re not listening!” Regarding claims of the show being likened to “torture porn,” Adams said, “I love the show. These days, to certain people, you almost have to apologize when you dislike something or you love something. I don’t really care anymore. That is one good thing about being a gray-haired lady – it’s almost like you get a license to not care.” Adams went on to assert, “Free speech is the license to offend, period, full stop. The funniest stuff, to me, is going to offend a group of people no matter what you do.”

In a previous interview with Variety, fellow Idol star Da’Vine Joy Randolph Randolph stated that she “never saw” any mistreatment on-set, but noted that sometimes production would keep long hours, which she did not find abnormal from past on-set experiences. “To be very transparent with you, if I did see anyone being mistreated — especially since I was one of the older actors — I would have said something, or I would have walked off that set,” Randolph said. 

She added, “But also, we get paid for what we do, meaning it’s long hours, so when they said in the [Rolling Stone] article that it’s long hours, well, any show you’re on, you’re working at least 12 hours. If you walk out there and it’s been 12 hours, that is a good day, girl. So, there were certain things in the article that I was like, ‘Well, wait a minute, now I’m confused because anybody who’s in the industry knows there are long hours.’”