In ‘Always Lalisa,’ K-pop superstar Lisa comes of age and embarks on a new career in acting

TORONTO (AP) — Even people unfamiliar with the K-pop superstar Lisa, of the group Blackpink , have probably experienced her global sway.

In the spring of 2024, the Thai singer and rapper was photographed with a strange little plush monster hanging from her handbag, grinning with serrated teeth. That was all it took for the Labubu craze to be born.

“I’m sorry!” Lisa says. “But I can’t help it. It’s really cute. We’re kids!”

It’s the morning after the Toronto International Film Festival premiere of “Always Lalisa,” a Sony Music Vision documentary opening for a limited engagement in theaters Oct. 12 before streaming on YouTube Premium.

Director Sue Kim follows Lisa, whose real name is Lalisa Manobal, through a pivotal year as she launches her first solo album, 2025’s “Alter Ego,” forms her own management company, plays Coachella, sings at the Oscars and makes her acting debut in “The White Lotus.”

The film also portrays a surreal evolution for Lisa, who was already in her mid-20s and one of the most famous faces in the world as the film begins. After years of strict management of her image under the South Korean label YG Entertainment that governed everything from her driving to her dating, it shows Lisa relishing a newfound independence.

“I learned so much on my own. I tried things that I never had a chance to try. It was challenging, but I’m just so proud of myself,” says Lisa, now 29. “Finding my voice, yes, and finding confidence. I’ve been with Blackpink for almost 10 years. Then I wanted to do my own solo project, but I wasn’t confident and I didn’t know where to start.”

Lisa seems typically bubbly and bright during an AP interview — “I have my chips and my matcha latte. I’m good” — but she's still shaking off some of the nerves of debuting the documentary. It’s easily the most intimate look yet into her life — her parents appear in it — and the full-life exposure is new for her. “It’s embarrassing when I see the footage when I was little and dancing,” she says, laughing and shaking her head.

Kim, a veteran documentarian and Detroit native raised by Korean immigrants, has spent enough time in the K-pop world to understand it. She produced the Apple TV series “K-pop Idols,” which documented the rigorous training of K-pop hopefuls. But Kim, who also directed 2024’s “The Last of the Sea Women,” has an outsider’s perspective on some of K-pop's unique pressures.

“For us, it’s sort of inconceivable that you’d be mad at an entertainer for having a romantic relationship or driving,” Kim says. “Don’t you want them to get places?”

Filming Lisa, she thought, would be a chance to show “a delayed coming of age.”

“I knew that we’d see her testing her boundaries, figuring out who she is, figuring out where she wants to take her life and her career, and also kind of figuring out what works for her as a human,” says Kim. “I loved the idea that we would be able to witness that with her as she was experiencing it.”

At just 13, Lisa became the first non-Korean trainee at YG, beating out thousands of hopefuls. She spent her next years singing, dancing and learning Korean while abiding by the restrictions: No dating, no drinking, no driver’s license. Since Blackpink's debut in 2016, the girl group quartet has accounted for more than 20 million records sold worldwide and more than 40 billion streams.

“I’m grateful for everything. I trained for five years. It’s like a boarding school. You go into school, sleep in a dorm with girls who have the same dream as you, and it’s fun,” Lisa says.

“Always Lalisa” chronicles some of Lisa’s growing pains. Uncertain how to present herself as a solo artist, she decides to showcase numerous identities on “Alter Ego,” to mixed reviews. Pitchfork called it “the generic embodiment of a pop star.” Global fame has also meant intense security: When Lisa wore a black-lace bodysuit to the 2025 Met Gala , online critics claimed incorrectly that Rosa Parks’ face was on her tights.

But in person, Lisa tends to win people over. Her Coachella set was mostly celebrated, as was her performance last month at the MTV VMAs . As a solo act, she’s thrived.

“If I want to do something, I just do it,” she says. “I don’t have to ask for permission or anything. If I have an idea, we make it happen. It’s fun to do whatever you want to do. Like, no limits.”

That’s also increasingly meant acting. For the Thailand-set third season of Mike White's HBO series “The White Lotus,” Lisa played Mook, the resort staffer whose flirty scenes with a security guard (Tayme Thapthimthong) reverberate across the plot and themes.

“I’ve been dancing and singing since I was little. But I feel like acting is something new to me,” Lisa says. “It’s just crazy that I got the role. I have to thank Mike White that he saw something in me. I’m so blessed to be in that show.”

White, the series creator, was likewise skeptical at first. In the documentary, he says he initially rejected the idea of a K-pop star as stunt casting. But then he met her.

“Mike White and I had the same takeaway,” Kim says. “She is so improbably this pure, sweet person that exists in this rarefied world that can be so harsh and scary to be yourself. There’s something so innocent about her, and it’s who she really is. I know so many fans of her feel so protective of her: ‘Protect Lisa at all costs!’ I kind of get it. I feel that way about her, too.”

Lisa stars next in a “Notting Hill”-inspired romantic comedy for Netflix, penned by Katie Silberman (“Set it Up”). Also for Netflix, she co-stars in the upcoming South Korean action thriller “Tygo,” by director Lee Sang-yong. “I’m super open to everything,” she says.

“I love ‘Notting Hill,' I love,” Lisa adds. “I’m not that picky. I can watch animation. I love a Disney movie. Horror movies, I’m not a big fan of. Because I’m a kid.”