Lisa Uncensored: On ‘Always Lalisa,’ Blackpink, Leaked Videos and Bond Girl Dreams

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.

What made you agree to do this documentary? There are a lot of intimate moments where you’re deglammed, vulnerable and showing a side of yourself that people don’t usually see.

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.

“Always Lalisa” tracks a year in your life when you’re on your own and striking out a solo career. What did you learn about what you want for your career and also what you want for yourself during that year?

I tried a lot of stuff during Blackpink — we’ve been through everything together — but when it comes to the year break, at first I was a little scared because I didn’t know how to start. Nobody was telling me what to do and I’m the one who has to choose the road to go down next. At first, it was like, “What should I do? What should I do?!” I tried it step by step and little by little, gained a lot of confidence and learned so much on my own. It’s been such a great journey for me, and I feel like my solo career just started.

What was it like to have more autonomy and control over your own life? You open up in the film about how you want a family someday, but the demands of being in a girl group have prevented you from doing that.

It’s fun and also a lot of pressure to do things on my own. I have my own company, Lloud, and I’d never had any experience doing that. Everything is a step of learning. And my dad says this in the film, but I love kids. We’re human and sometimes it can’t just only be work. You need your family, your comfort zone and your people; so, work is work, but I want to eventually have a family. I just want my fans to understand that I’m also a human as well.

Have you struck a decent work/life balance now?

I’m trying to find the balance! Right now, I’m just focusing on my album.

You seem liberated during that year where you’re freed from the control that your label, YG, had over your life and career. You have this quote in the film that stuck with me: “I didn’t dare to speak up or express my thoughts, and I had been living like that since I was 14.” That’s a tough way to live. So, what was it like to be under that degree of control? You say in the film that they would track your movements, didn’t let you drink, didn’t let you date, didn’t let you have a driver’s license and didn’t even let you go out to see your friends.

Back then, I was just focusing on practicing, dancing, singing, rapping and languages as well. It was like a boarding school. You have to sleep in a dorm every single night—

—It sounds more like a military academy.

It’s not that bad! It’s like a dorm, like you’re going to boarding school with a bunch of your friends the same age as you and we go to the office — the company — every day to learn, and then we go back to the dorm and we sleep. That was a pattern, and all we wanted at that time was to debut as an artist and singer. We were totally focused on that and not on anything else. And I think they wanted to protect us with the “no drinking” because we were still young.

What was it like to be free from those label restrictions for a year? It seems like you were really embracing your freedom.

With Blackpink, we just work nonstop and go tour, tour. The reason why we took a break is because if we do something for a very long time, you [burnout]. It wasn’t only me — we all felt like we needed a break. The break could be not doing anything and traveling the world, and that could be me as well, but I chose to break for a few months and then thought, “I want more! I want to challenge myself.” I love to challenge myself all the time and know what I can do on my own, so that’s why this crazy year happened.

Do you feel those label restrictions are too intense? And does a part of you think that you missed out on having a childhood?

I had a great childhood back in Thailand; and while training, that was amazing, too. I talk about this with my friends in Blackpink, but we’re all like, “Oh, that was so much fun.” We didn’t sleep. We wanted to create something new, practice and learn more. So, they were amazing years.

It seemed very intense. You discuss in the film how, during training, there would be a monthly test in front of the heads of the company, where everyone was tasked with submitting a performance that they’d then pick apart and cut people if they didn’t like it. And you’re just a teenager in this pressure cooker.

To be honest, it’s not easy for a young girl. But I think that’s what’s made me me. I’m grateful that I went through that. Seeing some of my friends have to leave really hurt and made me sad, but it’s not the end of your life; it’s just a part of your life. We all grow and learn from that. I know it’s kind of crazy because you have to perform in front of a bunch of people and can get cut, but it was fun. I look back and watch all the videos and think, “Wow, it’s crazy that we came up with all that choreo and did it ourselves.”

Do you have stress dreams?

What’s a stress dream?

When you think you haven’t prepared for the test and then you wake up and realize you’re not in school anymore.

All the time! I still have dreams like that these days. I didn’t know it was a thing! In some of my dreams, I have to perform for the monthly test, and I’ve just forgotten all the lines and all the lyrics, and then I wake up and go, “No! I’m Blackpink! I’m me right now.”

You have a lot of social media followers, and social media is a very wild place. I feel like during, and after, the pandemic, the attitude of some fans got very intense toward their idols. How is it for you to manage the negative feedback? There are scenes in the documentary where there are negative comments aimed at you flooding the screen, and it looks rough.

It’s not easy for me, to be honest. I feel like… Hmm… It was hard for me at first, but at the end of the day, I know what I’m doing and know my intention. It’s their opinion, and I have no control over that. As long as I know what I’m doing and who I am, that’s enough for me.

I think a lot of those comments are more about what those people are going through in their own lives, and they’re just projecting those feelings onto you.

Maybe. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. I know. But I’m trying not to have it be on my mind. It’s not healthy.

Do you have to be very good at compartmentalization? To keep things like trolls in these little boxes that you put aside in order to be who you are?

Mm-hmm. Yeah. It can take a while for me to separate those boxes. You can’t just do it in one night. I’ve been with Blackpink for ten years, so little by little, I’m trying to put things to the side and just focus on me and the job that I love.

The documentary explores the “YG Leaker,” who leaked trainee videos of you and the other members of Blackpink rapping and using the N-word while you were young teens. That same leaker was making death threats toward you, and there are scenes in the film where you and your team want to address it, but the label won’t let you. What was that experience like, and what did you learn from those videos getting released and the subsequent backlash?

I really have to apologize. To be honest, I’m Thai and I grew up in Thailand. There isn’t any education for that, so at the time, I didn’t know. Now I’ve learned and got educated about that, and I would never [do it again]. This is not OK. Seriously. And with the leakers—

—This all happened right before your first solo performance at Coachella, and we see in the film how you are really struggling in the lead-up to Coachella.

Everything is real. It’s all there. I was just sad because I really wanted to focus on my performance, but things happened, and you can’t control stuff. But I fought through it.

What did the year off, when you embarked on a solo career, make you think about Blackpink and your future with Blackpink? You say in the film that everyone in the group has had discussions about the future of the group, so what do you think? How long do you want to be Blackpink before everyone maybe goes the One Direction route and pursues solo careers?

If I’m 50, I still want to do Blackpink! We just finished our tour earlier this year, but we talk a lot about this and have discussions about doing a little break — like I did almost two years ago — but we’re always going to be together. We just finished the Blackpink tour, so now we’re back to our solo eras again.

I enjoyed your performance of the Bond themes at the Oscars. Do you want to be a Bond girl? People were definitely discussing that possibility afterward.

Ah, I wish! Seriously. But no one’s called me yet.

I’m getting the wrap, but you made the Labubu so popular just by putting it on your bag and displaying it on social media. They’re even making a Labubu movie now.

That’s crazy.

What do you think about how popular Labubus got after you started the trend, and did you get any of that money from Pop Mart? In my opinion, they owe you a lot of money.

No, no! I’m not here to take any credit. I really like the doll! I love it. It’s so cute. Some people don’t think it’s cute, but I love them. I was just being a nerd and telling people about them. I feel like we all have a kid inside us somewhere, and now I’m just happy that people can have fun with the Labubu and enjoy the Labubu as much as I do.