BLACKPINK member Jennie Kim is opening up about her involvement in HBO's short-lived show The Idol and explaining why the project, albeit heavily critiqued, still stands out for her.
In a new cover interview with Harper's Bazaar, Jennie looked back at her career as a member of BLACKPINK, a soloist, and an actor and revealed why she felt connected to The Idol as a project.
In case you need a little refresher, Jennie played Dyanne in the show, which was helmed by Euphoria's Sam Levinson and The Weekend. We first met Dyanne in episode one as one of the backup dancers of Lily-Rose Depp's Jocelyn. Slowly but surely, though, we got to see more of Dyanne (and her duplicitous nature) as her own pop star aspirations started bubbling to the surface.
"I related to Dyanne a lot. Like, a lot," Jennie reveals in her Harper's Bazaar interview, adding that "wanting to become a super pop star is something I could easily just tune myself into."
However, it was not just the pop star aspirations that made Jennie relate to the show, but the fact that the show would spotlight the underlying structures of stardom, which are often enshrouded in abuse.
"Having the idea of this evil person coming in and trying to manipulate, I've been in that world my whole life," Jennie said, admitting it was part the part of the show that appealed most to her.
Jennie might not have been a main character in The Idol, but she definitely is one in real life, and she's gearing up for a reintroduction on her own terms outside of the BLACKPINK bubble. The star, who set up her own company, ODD Atelier, in 2023, recently announced she had signed with Columbia Records, with her first single expected to arrive in October.
"BLACKPINK Jennie will always be a part of me, but you will also get to experience this new side," Jennie said of her new music to Harper's Bazaar. " I spent six years as a trainee, and throughout that process, I was so focused on becoming a performer, I didn't really understand the meaning of becoming an artist," she added.
Her forthcoming project will make sure to change that, with Jennie involved in everything from production to design. Though details about what the project will look like are still being kept under wraps, Jennie teased that the recording has been primarily in English and that she's looking to “include a range of genres.”
She also teased that one key message in the album is "to understand and stick [up] for who you are," which certainly resonates with the snippet of an untitled song we got via a Beats ad in June.
Ahead of the release of her first project under OA and to coincide with this new profile, Jennie also announced her official fandom name in this new solo venture, christening her fans as "Rubies," a play on her full English nae Jennie Ruby-Jane, which she came up with herself when she was only 11.
“Hi Rubies, it’s Jennie,” the star said in a voice note posted on her official website after a countdown started on September 18. "Stay tuned, and I’ll see you soon. Love you, bye!” Are we ready, Rubies?
