The Weeknd’s movie is a cross between ‘Raging Bull’ and ‘Purple Rain,’ says director

The Weeknd‘s upcoming movie, Hurry Up Tomorrow, may have the same title as his new LP, but it’s by no means a “visual album” like Beyonce‘s Lemonade or the one Miley Cyrus is releasing later this year. It’s a psychological thriller that, according to the director, may you remind you of some other movies.

In addition to The Weeknd, who plays a character named Abel — the singer’s actual birth name — the movie stars Jenna Ortega and Barry Keoghan. It’s “kinda like Raging Bull and Persona meets Purple Rain,” director Trey Edward Shults tells Empire magazine. 

Raging Bull stars Robert De Niro as real-life boxing champ Jake LaMotta, while Persona is a classic 1966 avant-garde psychological thriller about two women who may actually be the same person. Purple Rain is, of course, a semi-biographical drama about Prince.

For his part, The Weeknd tells Empire that the movie was partly inspired by an LA concert he did in 2022 where his voice gave out, not because there was anything physically wrong with him, but because of psychological reasons. He says, “I think it was a test: ‘What happens if this thing that you’re relying on too much is taken away from you?’”

“I think that I needed that experience, on the biggest stage of my career, because that way I couldn’t ignore it,” he adds.

The Persona of it all comes in the fact that Ortega plays a character named Ani, who seems to be an actual person but who is really the “feminine side” of Abel. Ortega tells Empire, “He’s been neglecting [that side of himself] … because ever since he went on to live this life as a musician, he felt pressured to be something else.”

Hurry Up Tomorrow hits theaters May 16.