The life of a K-pop star is anything but easy — and Lisa is living proof. At 13, the Thai performer beat out 4,000 hopefuls to join the vaunted South Korean record label YG Entertainment, becoming their first non-Korean trainee. The following year, she moved to South Korea for K-pop boot camp and managed to learn conversational Korean in her first six months.
Her formal training would last five grueling years, replete with monthly performance check-ins in front of label brass where trainees were cut, and an extraordinary number of restrictions: no drinking, no dating, no driver’s license, no leaving to see friends and your every movement tracked. Nevertheless, she persisted, and, in 2016, debuted as a rapper and dancer in Blackpink, a K-pop quartet that shot to global superstardom. But Lisa’s image — and life — remained under the control of YG.
Every time she stepped out in public, she had to be in full glam and her love interests were hidden from view. She didn’t even set foot in a nightclub until she was 25. But that all changed in 2024.
After Lisa and the other members of Blackpink announced they’d be pursuing solo projects separate from YG, she formed her own management company, Lloud, joined RCA Records, and over the next year, would drop her first solo album, “Alter Ego”; sing a Bond theme at the Academy Awards; make her acting debut in the third season of “The White Lotus”; and play Coachella. She was also free to do what she wanted any old time, for the first time in a long time. That whirlwind year is chronicled with surprising intimacy in “Always Lalisa,” a new documentary that premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival before hitting theaters Oct. 12.
Directed by Sue Kim (“K-Pop Idols”), the film provides a behind-the-scenes look at Lisa launching her solo career while capturing her rise to stardom and even the controversies, such as Blackpink’s leaked YG trainee videos that featured members saying the N-word while rapping along to songs. It features interviews with family members to “White Lotus” creator Mike White, and will surely resonate with her 106 million Instagram followers (and beyond). Lisa sat down with Variety at TIFF to discuss the film and more.
I feel like it’s about time. I’m more confident now, so I want to share my story to fans who have a big dream like me. I hope that this could inspire them.
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