Fans of BLACKPINK are showing mixed opinions regarding a US news outlets pitting Jennie and Jisoo against each other.
In early June, BLACKPINK Jennie officially made her Hollywood debut with a role in HBO’s “The Idol”, which quickly generated mixed opinions. The drama, which premiered for the first time at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival, got critics to begin analyzing and assessing Jennie’s long-awaited acting debut.
Contrary to the wave of concerns raised by Asian audiences, Western critics spent a lot of praise for Jennie. In particular, media outlets such as E!, Vogue France, The Guardian, BuzzFeed, etc, all acknowledged Jennie’s first drama appearance as “outstanding”, partly due to her captivating dance.
However, it was a comment from The New York Times that became the focus of attention, as fans believed the media indirectly compared Jennie to a fellow BLACKPINK member, Jisoo.
In particular, in a Twitter caption for one of their articles about “The Idol”, The New York Times emphasizes, “Fans of the K-pop group BLACKPINK are watching “The Idol”, a new HBO drama series, to see one of the band’s members, Jennie, makes her acting debut. Jennie isn’t the only group member to try her hand at acting, but she may have the most high-profile role. “
In this context, The New York Times’ commentary directly mentions Jennie, at the same time implied that Jennie’s role is more “high-profile” than that of Jisoo, causing discontent among fans. Previously, Jisoo made her acting debut as the female lead of the K-drama “Snowdrop”, where she starred alongside actor Jung Hae In.
According to many fans, it is unreasonable to say that Jennie’s role in “The Idol” is more “high-profile” than Jisoo’s role in “Snowdrop”. They also cited that both “Snowdrop” and “The Idol” drew global attention, but while Jisoo played a leading role, Jennie assumed a supporting character with limited screen time.
While “The Idol” is a Hollywood project, “Snowdrop” garnered attention throughout Asia and reached international audiences, as it was released online through Disney+. Not to mention, the CEO of Twitter Korea, Kim Yeon Jeong, also announced at the COEX 2022 conference that “Snowdrop” was the most tweeted drama on the social media platform Twitter in 2022.
Below are some comments from netizens regarding The New York Times’ controversial statement:
- “The most high-profile role”? Are they saying that a backup dancer has a bigger role than the female lead in a series?
- I think the most high-profile refers to Jennie being in a Hollywood project… But to be honest, we haven’t seen any of her acting so far
- Jisoo got the female lead role after a difficult process, while Jennie’s role is supporting and doesn’t require any preparation, but somehow one is more high-profile than another?
- Jennie’s role obviously got a lot of impact, but that doesn’t mean Jisoo’s is any less “high-profile”
- Are they trying to say that any Hollywood project is automatically more “high-profile” that Korean dramas?
On the other hand, it is true that Jennie’s role has a huge influence and earned a lot of attention. The scene featuring Jennie in “The Idol” has garnered over 3.2 million views in just 2 days, while her dance sequence on-screen has also become a trend on social media.
Source: The New York Times, k14
