Jennie Kim (Blackpink) opened up about her acting debut in HBO’s “The Idol” and the pressures of being a K-Pop idol.

Jennie was born in Korea, moved and studied in Auckland, New Zealand when she was 10 years old. 5 years later she returned to Korea and joined YG entertainment company. The four-member group was formed in 2016 and has achieved countless successes globally.

Blackpink is the first Korean female group and artist to have five music videos accumulate one billion views on YouTube and is the most followed girl group on Spotify.

In Sam Levinson’s “The Idol,” Jennie works under the stage name Jennie Ruby Jane and plays a backup singer and dancer for pop star Lily-Rose Depp.

Chatting with Dua Lipa on BBC Sounds’ “Dua Lipa: At Your Service” podcast, Jennie shared:

“Acting is definitely one of the things I want to explore, when I do something, when I decide to really put my heart into it, I know I need to take it seriously.

And first of all, I want the new acting chapter of my life to be authentic and natural, instead of just trying to grab any opportunity that comes my way. – I was really patient with my first role.

When I spent time in LA last year, I met Sam in person and chatted with him. Sam described the image he envisioned for my role and everything – it really touched my heart.”

Everything happened very quickly and Jennie was offered a job by Levinson via text message. “Everything happened very randomly, without predicting the reality of work. It felt so real, it touched me, gave me the courage to believe that this was the right thing to do,” Jennie confided.

To become a Blackpink member, Jennie went through 6 years of hard training. “I never really knew clearly how I went through that process.

But the people who know the importance of keeping their own identity and individuality within the training system are the ones who are currently in the group – so many have lost their way because we are so focused on pleasing others. that we’ve worked with before, but we’re not sure who we’re doing it for and how they might recognize us in the future.

Because it’s literally years of training, not just a few hours. So you really get sucked into the lifestyle that they led us into,” Jennie shares.

Classified as a rapper, but when recalling her early debut, Jennie confided: “I have never shared this anywhere, but I really want to say it. After debuting, we released it. 6 songs in which I only rap, seriously rap and nothing else.

I was a bit confused because I realized I really liked singing, but I never really had the chance to really learn and explore it as a trainee because I was told that I should become a singer. rapper.

So there was a period where I hated rapping. My head was like, “This isn’t me, this isn’t the journey I envisioned, I don’t think I’m a rapper.” So I definitely felt exhausted at some point.”

During the Born Pink world tour, Dua Lipa noticed that Jennie really liked the song “Tally”, Dua Lipa asked Jennie about this Blackpink song, one of the first songs the group used F-words (sensitive words), and the reason the female idol gave was:

“Starting my career in Korea as a K-pop artist limited many aspects of me. There were a lot of things I wasn’t allowed to express just because I was a K-Pop idol, and I was afraid to express myself.

I was able to express myself and people would see it as an act of breaking boundaries rather than “she’s doing something she’s not supposed to do” and could open a new chapter for others. just started participating in this industry in Korea.

That’s when I realized that I wanted to break more boundaries so that people in my culture understand that expressing yourself the way you want – this is not a norm. There should be no reason to judge and people should just see it as, “oh, that’s how that person expresses themselves”.

“So I think the song ‘Tally’ was one of the first songs where we actually said the F word. And at first when I started performing the song, the first time I performed Tally I couldn’t even sing clearly from there. I was like, “oh, can I put the mic a little further away?” Do you guys think this is okay? But then more fans liked this song, and I felt connected to Blinks (Blackpink fans),” Jennie added.

“When I was on stage performing that song, they said, ‘yeah, just do what you think is right’. It was the fans who gave me the confidence and supported me to really enjoy the song.”

Earlier this year, Blackpink set Coachella on fire with amazing performances including “Tally.” It was an emotional experience for Jennie. “I was under a lot of pressure, I think this was the first time I cried.

As soon as I stepped off the stage, I burst into tears. So emotional. I was so proud of the hardships we went through and just the overwhelming feeling of being surrounded by crowds. A lot of mixed emotions.”

Responding to the criticism of her “lazy” performances, Jennie shared, “I feel like there was a time when I let my fans down because there were times when it looked like I wasn’t giving it my all.” do your best on stage.

I haven’t had a chance to say it yet, but I just want to say that I didn’t know how to control my body and use it the way I should.

And I don’t really feel comfortable performing in high heels. There are people who are very brilliant, very beautiful in high heels, but me and high heels are not made for each other… When I have to move too much and I even try to dance in high heels, my strength is reduced. will fall very quickly because I know that it is not comfortable for my body.

I want to tell the fans that I am still in the process of discovering myself, so if I have anything, I will share it from now on.”

Before that, Jennie was criticized many times for her unprofessional attitude when performing lazily, superficially, forgetting songs and not respecting the audience, especially during Blackpink’s world concert series, when the group had a schedule. Extremely dense and busy.