Xuenou > Celebrity > The Weeknd Gave A Rare Interview About Experiencing Homelessness When He Was 17: “It Was Complicated”
The Weeknd Gave A Rare Interview About Experiencing Homelessness When He Was 17: “It Was Complicated”
The Weeknd Gave A Rare Interview About Experiencing Homelessness When He Was 17: "It Was Complicated","I didn’t have money. That’s when I was homeless, around 17, 18. I’d just walk in there and pretend I was going to rent something."

The Weeknd Gave A Rare Interview About Experiencing Homelessness When He Was 17: “It Was Complicated”

The Weeknd gave a rare interview where he discussed experiencing homelessness as a teenager.

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“I would walk into one and it’s like, I don’t want to leave,” he continued, noting the now-defunct indie video store Queen Video in downtown Toronto. “I’d go there and I wouldn’t even buy or rent. I’d just look through everything and obsess over films I’d never seen.”

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He said, “I didn’t have money. That’s when I was homeless, around 17, 18. I’d just walk in there and pretend I was going to rent something. The reality was, I was just trying to learn about filmmakers and one-ups.”

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“Look, it was as complicated as a fucking teenager being homeless in Toronto in 2007, 2008,” Abel added when asked whether his experiences with being unhoused made his “seedy” earlier work autobiographical or escapist. “The struggle — there was something magical about it. There’s something magical about being in this new place and trying to start from the beginning and create your own new narrative as an adult. It was fun.”

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“Then a couple of years go by, and it’s like, ‘Oh, shit, this is kind of dark. We need to figure out what we’re doing in life,'” he said with a laugh. “But yeah, it was complicated. It was nightlife, it was freedom, and I was a sponge. I wrote what I knew, so it was what I was going through, what [La Mar Taylor, Abel’s best friend and creative director] was going through, different stories from that lifetime.”

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Abel added, “I’d just take it all and create this body of work out of it, but it’s not too autobiographical. I sensationalize a lot of it. It’s like creating a movie. You gotta make it a little more exciting than it actually is.”

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You can read the full interview with The Weeknd here.