Lisa has spent years being watched. Between BLACKPINK, K-pop’s famously meticulous idol-making machine and a fanbase that has followed nearly every turn of her career, there is not exactly a shortage of versions of Lalisa Manobal for the world to know. Always Lalisa, however, arrives at an unusual point: when Lisa finally gets to find out who she is outside of the group that made her a global star.

In this interview with NetflixJunkie, director Sue Kim has spoken about following that uncertainty through a year of solo ambitions, The White Lotus, 'Alter Ego' and, of course, Coachella—and, in doing so, finding a Lisa even she was not expecting.

Adiba Nizami: Lisa is one of our most loved K-pop idols in the world, so you were entering Always Lalisa knowing there was already a very carefully constructed perception of her across the industry and among fans. Was there a conscious effort to challenge those existing perceptions, or did you have any reservations about that constructed image going into the documentary?

Sue Kim: No, not really. I didn’t know that much about BLACKPINK before starting this documentary, but I knew of them, of course. I had a couple of their songs on my playlist, so I knew the general brand and image of BLACKPINK. I knew Lisa was the main dancer, and she seemed really lovable, so that was my initial impression of her.

But when I decided to take on the documentary, I try very, very hard never to start a project thinking I know what the story is. The reason why, every time I’ve tried to do that, I’m usually very wrong. If I’m really doing my due diligence as a documentary filmmaker, I’m recording and filming who a person actually is every day, on a day-to-day basis, and allowing their true personality, the film and the actions and events of their life to tell me what the story is.

So with Lisa, I really didn’t know what I was getting into. I knew she had a crazy, jam-packed work schedule. I knew she was trying to branch out into a solo career with RCA, and I thought, 'That's exciting, that's cool'. She was going to try something new. She was going to be in a place of discomfort, and I think that’s creatively a very interesting place for me to be with her.

I also knew, because I know a little bit about K-pop, that this year away from it would probably allow her a lot of freedom and exploration and agency that she maybe had not had before. I knew the circumstances of the year and the vast possibility of things that could happen to her because there was so much freedom being given to her.

But I really didn’t know where it was going to go. Where it took me was to a woman who was trying to branch out from who she had been, who she had been told she was, to a certain extent, and who was defined within K-pop, and give herself a year of freedom and exploration to figure out who that person really is. That became the story because it’s what happened to her over time as we were filming.

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Adiba: So, as you have said, this was such a formative year for Lisa, there was so much happening at once. How did you establish the narrative boundaries of the film, balancing the need to introduce audiences to Lisa from the ground up while separating her from the identity we already have of her as a BLACKPINK member?

Sue: That's a great question. Exactly as you said, we were documenting one year of her life throughout all these events, and that was the meat of what we were filming and where we were going to find our story. But anyone watching the film might not have any idea who Lisa is. It’s crazy because she’s one of the most famous people in the world, but there are so many people who don’t know who she is because they’re older or from a different generation.

If I wanted them to watch the film and enjoy it, I had to assume the role of a viewer who doesn’t know anything about her. I had to bring in the contextual and historical information that would make that viewer feel, “Okay, I understand why there’s a documentary about her and why she’s so famous.”

They need to understand her upbringing and childhood, who she was before she came into the world of K-pop, and the bare minimum of what her life and career in K-pop were. We need to understand, in this year away, what the differences are and what the stakes are, what she’s risking.

She’s doing a lot of things in this year away from K-pop that technically wouldn’t normally be okay to do within K-pop. So there’s quite a bit of risk, boundary-pushing and creative exploration on her part. You can’t appreciate the sort of risk she was taking unless you really know the world that she came from.

It was a balancing act. What we tried to do was keep the sharp point as Lisa and her year, her solo year. But we would always bring in the historical and contextual information if there was ever a point where it felt like we might lose a viewer because we weren’t giving them the information they needed to appreciate a scene or a moment.

Adiba: Your previous work, including The Last of the Sea Women, has explored questions of identity, belonging and culture. As a Korean-American filmmaker, did your relationship with Korean culture inform your approach to Lisa’s story, particularly given her experience as a Thai artist navigating the South Korean entertainment industry?

Sue: I’ll be honest and say I don’t feel like my Korean-American identity came up so much as my identity as a woman.

I understood the world of K-pop a bit because I worked on a previous project on K-pop, so I really understood the specifics of this universe and the rules that she was under. But I would never say that I understand what it was like to be Lisa. I think Lisa, coming from Thailand at 14 and entering the K-pop system in South Korea, must have had a really challenging, hard and alienating experience.

I don’t think any normal person could understand that unless they lived through an experience like that, and I certainly didn’t. I had so much admiration and empathy for her when she talked about how hard those years were.

But I think I related to her and rooted for her as a woman. I know what it’s like to be a woman in society. I know what it’s like to not always feel like you’re being heard, which is something that she talks about in the film.

Having the power, confidence and agency to forge the path that you want is not always something that is given or allowed to women easily. I found that she definitely had that experience as well.

There are a lot of things she went through that I think, just being a woman, I really identified with. I really admired her because she continued to push through and continued to try to expand herself and her dreams in her career, no matter how difficult it was.

Adiba: While watching the documentary, there were moments when Lisa seemed stretched so thin across everything she was facing, yet she kept this smile on her face. It was baffling to look at.

Sue: Really. I do think she’s one of those people who is extra talented or just innately cheerful. She has a kind of weird resilience where it doesn’t look like she’s tough. She’s a very soft, sweet, tender person, but she can deal with a lot.

She can last longer than people when it comes to physical endurance. She can take criticism really well. I think that good nature you see with her in the film, where I would definitely be grumpy and losing it, comes from the fact that she has this joy and good nature that are really hard to shake.

Even when she’s down, she’s still kind of ready to laugh with you.

Adiba: The final week before Coachella captures some of Lisa’s most vulnerable moments, particularly with the leak of her trainee videos and the pressure surrounding Coachella. You are looking at her face as some of these very taxing incidents take place, but at the same time, this is also the source of one of the most pivotal moments for Lisa. So, how did you draw the line between documenting those moments and making sure she didn’t feel invaded by the camera?

Sue: So, I never filmed her during a vulnerable moment without clearing it with her. In general, I know there are lots of different documentary film styles, and some people are like, “Cameras rolling all the time, just deal with it.” I’m so not like that. The reason why I’m not like that is because that’s how I get people to trust me.

Coachella rehearsals were fine because even when she’s tired or grumpy, she’s so used to having cameras on her while she’s preparing for things or dancing. I think that’s second nature to her.

But, for instance, when the trainee videos came out, I had a conversation with her and her manager, Alice. I said, “I understand this is super sensitive. I also understand that you might not want to talk about it, but I also think that this is your documentary. It’s the story that you want to tell, and I’m trying to tell it as thoroughly, honestly and authentically as I can.”

This was something she was going through that was really affecting her mental health and emotional state while she was trying to get ready for Coachella. I told her that if she had it in her, I thought she should talk to us about what was happening. She didn’t have to have a resolution to what was happening. We were just finding out about it. It was shocking and sad for her, and we could just talk about that.

They agreed. And I’ll just give full credit to Lisa: she was very open to being vulnerable and brave and courageous, knowing she could get even more hate if she talked about this. But she wanted to be transparent in the film, so she decided to give us that conversation.

All those moments happen because I ask for permission. I think by doing so, she knows I don’t have ill intent towards her. I’m not trying to expose her. I want to show her dimensionality in her real life.

So she just was amazing and gave us so much.

Always Lalisa will be coming to theaters on October 12, 2026. 

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Are you excited to see Lisa's solo year in Always Lalisa? Let us know in the comments.