INTERVIEW

A: Your performances are incredibly physical and high-energy. How important is movement to the way you express yourself musically?

 

Agnez: Movement is part of how I hear music. Sometimes my body understands the beat before my mind does. Dance has never felt like decoration to me. It carries rhythm, tension, confidence, anger, sensuality and vulnerability. Even stillness can be a very deliberate kind of movement. The way you breathe or hold your body can completely change what a lyric means.

 

For me, my voice and my body aren’t separate instruments. They’re communicating the same story.

 

A: What can you say through music or performance that you can’t express otherwise?

 

Agnez: There are things I can sing before I can say them. Music can hold two conflicting truths at once. You can be powerful and heartbroken. You can be angry and still in love. You can be completely in control and falling apart at the same time.

 

In normal conversation, we often feel pressure to explain or defend what we’re feeling. Performance allows the emotion to exist without needing to justify itself. Onstage, I can turn something deeply private into something communal without having to reveal every detail of where it came from.

 

A: What is most important to you about being authentic in the art you create?

 

Agnez: Authenticity doesn’t mean telling the public everything. It also doesn’t mean having the same sound, image or opinion for the rest of your life.

 

To me, authenticity is emotional truth. The story can be fictional, theatrical or larger than life, but the emotion underneath it has to be real. The point of view has to be mine.

 

I don’t mind evolving. In fact, pretending that I haven’t evolved would be more inauthentic than changing. Authenticity isn’t staying loyal to an old version of yourself. It’s being honest about who you are now.

 

And I know that I might sound like a broken record now, but I will always stand by and advocate for my version of me…

 

A: What parts of yourself have you worked hardest to protect to keep something for yourself?

 

Agnez: I work the hardest to protect the woman who exists after the spotlight and after the applause stops because I am a human first, a woman first, before I am an artist, before I am an actress, before I am a singer.

 

I will forever protect my softness. My relationships. My home. And the part of me that creates before outside opinions enter the room. When you grow up in public, it’s easy to start feeling like every experience has to be shared, documented or turned into something useful. I have never believed that. Some things need to remain mine so I can still have a real life to create from.

 

A: You’ve spoken openly about having very high standards for yourself. Where does that perfectionism come from, and how do you manage to balance it?

 

Agnez: I think a big part of it comes from a sense of responsibility, NEVER from fear. I’ve always looked at my talents and opportunities as blessings from God, and I believe I have a responsibility to honour those blessings by giving my absolute best. I started working when I was six, so discipline and professionalism became part of who I am very early on. But I’ve also learned that having high standards doesn’t mean I have to be perfect. In fact, perfectionism can sometimes kill the very thing that makes you creative in the first place. It can take away your freedom to play, explore, and discover.

 

So along the way, I’ve always made a conscious effort to embrace and own my imperfections, too. Because I genuinely believe that allowing myself to be imperfect makes me a better human being and a better artist.

 

I always say I can accept not being the best at everything, but I can’t accept not being the best student you could ever meet. And to me, being a great student isn’t just about being prepared or working hard. It also means having the humility to admit what you don’t know, the curiosity to keep learning, and the courage to experiment, make mistakes, and grow.

 

Excellence will always be the goal. But perfection doesn’t have to be the price of getting there. As a matter of fact, I believe that imperfection is what makes it perfect!

 

A: What’s something people assume about you when they see this confident and expressive woman?

 

Agnez:  People sometimes assume that because I look confident, I don’t get scared, I don’t doubt myself, or I don’t need support. But confidence isn’t the absence of fear. It’s deciding that fear doesn’t get the final vote…it’s deciding that I will not give in to fear and insecurities.

 

I’m strong, but I care deeply…sometimes too deeply. And being independent doesn’t mean I don’t need love, emotional safety or partnership. Sometimes the strongest-looking people are simply the people who had to learn how to hold a lot…

 

A: You’ve built a career around being very independent and unapologetic. Has that ever come at a cost?

 

Agnez: Absolutely!! Independence costs money, time, convenience and sometimes access. It can mean taking the longer route. It can mean being misunderstood or being called difficult before people understand what you’re actually protecting. And when you own your decisions, you also have to own your mistakes.

 

But I KNOW THIS: the cost of giving away authorship over my own life would have been much higher.

 

I also don’t confuse being independent with doing everything alone. I believe deeply in collaboration; that’s why im so “obsessed” with creating the best team (haha, I call it my Avengers team). I just don’t want to spend my life waiting for somebody else to decide whether there is a place for me. Every time somebody told me there wasn’t, it pushed me to build one.

 

A: What does female empowerment mean to you now compared with when you were younger?

 

Agnez: When I was younger, I think, empowerment meant proving that I could be just as strong, loud, ambitious and capable as anybody else.

 

Now, empowerment means agency…

 

A woman should be allowed to be powerful, soft, strategic, sensual, private, maternal, ambitious…or none of those things…without constantly having to explain herself. All of those choices should be okay. Empowerment is having ownership over your choices, your body, your time, your work and your story.

 

It isn’t about becoming one socially acceptable version of a “powerful woman.” It’s having the freedom to define power for yourself. And this is what I always try to represent…my version of power, my version of representation, my version of me.

 

A: Is there a piece of advice you wish you’d heard as a young woman entering an industry where everyone has an opinion about you?

 

Agnez: Don’t become smaller so other people can feel more comfortable managing you.

 

Learn the difference between guidance and projection. Stay teachable (always!!), but understand that not every opinion is wisdom. Learn the business early. Read your contracts. Understand ownership. Protect your name and your work.

 

And remember that being rejected and being wrong are not the same thing. Not everybody who is unable to see your future is qualified to define it.

 

A: When do you feel most like yourself—onstage, in the studio, at home, or somewhere completely different?

 

Agnez:  Onstage is ONE amplified version of me. At home is ANOTHER side of me... probably the most unedited version of me.

 

But I think I feel most like myself when I’m learning…in the studio, in rehearsal, on set, or in that moment before something becomes finished… That’s when curiosity takes over, and I’m not trying to prove anything yet. I’m just discovering.

 

I always say this to my fans, and I think it’s worth saying it again that curiosity has probably taken me further than confidence ever did.

 

A: What’s something you refuse to compromise on, no matter how successful you become?

 

Agnez: The why. I can compromise on the route, the arrangement, the styling, the release date or the strategy. But I won’t compromise on emotional truth or integrity.

 

I don’t want a version of success that requires me to become somebody I don’t respect. The method can change. The core cannot.

 

A: Have you ever achieved something you thought would make you happy—only to realise you wanted something completely different?

 

Agnez: Hmm.. yeah, absolutely. But at the same time, I've always known that success is an event. It isn’t a home.

 

One of the most important things I was ever told was, “Don’t let your current success hinder you from your future success.” I’m grateful for every milestone, but I’m not chasing a checklist. I’m chasing growth, freedom, meaningful work and a life with people I love.

 

A: You’ve spent years building an extraordinary career in music, and now you’re stepping into one of the world’s biggest action franchises. What made Reacher the right first major acting role for you?

 

Agnez: After being away from acting for more than 15 years, I didn’t want a role because people knew my music or recognised my name. I wanted to know that I earned it. I auditioned for it, and that mattered to me. Lila demanded so many different things from me: vulnerability, intelligence, physicality, restraint and the ability to let the audience see one thing while something completely different is happening underneath. She isn’t a simple hero or villain. She exists in the grey.

 

For my first major international role, I wanted something that genuinely scared me and stretched me. I didn’t want a safe introduction.

 

A: Lila goes through so many transformations during the season. How did you approach playing a character who is constantly hiding who she really is?

 

Agnez: I never approached her as somebody who was simply lying. I asked myself what truth existed inside every identity she presented. A mask only works if some part of it is real. Her vulnerability is sometimes strategic, sometimes completely genuine, and very often both. I mapped out what she knew, what she wanted, what she feared, what she needed from Reacher and when the manipulation started colliding with real emotion.

 

The most interesting part was that I don’t think even Lila always knows exactly where the performance ends and where she begins, which is exactly why she is sooo fun to play!

 

A: How did you plant subtle clues about Lila’s true identity without giving the audience the game away?

 

Agnez: The goal was for the clues to feel obvious only after the audience knew the truth. I never wanted to wink at the audience or announce that she was hiding something. We focused on very small details: how quickly she reads a room, when she becomes almost too still, when an emotional reaction arrives half a beat late, how quickly she recovers, or what she notices but chooses not to comment on.

 

Sometimes the clue wasn’t what she did. It was the amount of control it took for her not to do something. On the first watch, it should feel natural. On the second watch, it should feel like she was telling you who she was the entire time.

 

A: Was there something you learned on Reacher that you immediately carried into Groove Tails?

 

Agnez: Preparation creates freedom. On Reacher, I learned that when I had really done the work…the lines, backstory, objective, physical details. I could stop showing the work and simply listen. I carried that into Groove Tails.

 

Even when the audience only hears your voice, the character still needs a complete inner life. I never wanted to “perform a cartoon.” I wanted to play a real being who happens to exist inside an animated world.

 

It’s a completely different medium, but the rule is the same: don’t play the final result. Play the truth of the moment.

 

A: What’s excited you the most about being part of Groove Tails?

 

Agnez: Well, of course, to be working with Alan again, then to work with other artists like Ludacris, Halle Bailey..

 

Secondly, I think it was how naturally it brings together so many things I love…acting, music, rhythm, movement and humour…but asks me to use them in a completely different way.

 

There’s also something beautiful about a story that celebrates individuality, perseverance, finding your own rhythm and discovering where you belong; AAAAND in the most fun way! Those ideas are very personal to me because so much of my journey has been about learning how to enter new spaces without losing my centre.

 

A: What was the most challenging part of bringing Groove Tails to life?

 

Agnez: Learning how to make the audience feel the entire body of a character through the voice. I’m such a visual/physical performer. I usually use my eyes, posture, movement and the space around me. In the booth, all of that has to live inside your breath, rhythm, timing and vocal texture..

 

The temptation can be to make everything bigger because it’s animation, but the emotional truth still has to be precise. The challenge wasn’t simply creating an interesting voice. It was making sure there was a real soul living inside it.

 

Creative Baolong Song @baolong_song

Photography Baolong Song @baolong_song

Styling Sebastien Hohl @sebastienhohl_

Hair Styling Alex Thao @alexthaohair The Only Agency @theonly.agency

MUA Sangwon Jeon @makeupsang

Photography Assistant Emily Song @emilysongwastaken