RM Shares Why He Wanted to Be ‘Completely Free and Honest’ in New Doc — and What It Means for BTS (Exclusive)

• Right People, Wrong Place is a new documentary centered on the making of BTS member RM’s second solo album, Right Place, Wrong Person
• RM opens up about the documentary in an exclusive Q&A shared with PEOPLE
• “I want to fully express my story… and I wish to be more of my true self,” says the star

RM is known among BTS fans for his candor. In 2024 slang, he might be (affectionately) deemed a yapper.

It’s a quality that often delights ARMY (as BTS’s fandom is known) and likely keeps the groups’ management up at night.

He talks directly to fans about his personal and professional struggles on impromptu late-night livestreams, and addresses the universal ones faced by his generation on the floor of the United Nations, He shares ideas and inspiration like he can’t help it — and even occasionally gets himself into trouble by accidentally leaking details of the group’s future plans.

In RM: Right People, Wrong Place, the rapper and K-pop superstar’s documentary (out Dec. 5) about the making of his critically acclaimed second solo album, Right Place, Wrong Person, he’s more open and honest than ever. And for the first time, he seems okay with all of it.

“There have been many aspects of my life where I couldn’t be honest,” RM, 30, says, reflecting on the project’s origins in a Q&A shared exclusively with PEOPLE. “And when I express these causes, I’m not sure how my fans or people outside will think about it, but I just wanted to share my story. I want to fully express my story… and I wish to be more of my true self.”

“As a team, we’ve done a lot of ‘Love Yourself’,” he continues, referencing the series of BTS albums with the title that sparked a sort of mission statement for the group encouraging self love and acceptance. “But eventually, to love yourself, you must be the most honest with yourself to hold that key.”

His album, which was released in May 2024, and the documentary, which debuted at the Busan international Film Festival in October, were made over eight months in the window between BTS’s June 2022 announcement that they’d be taking a hiatus (so the members could work on solo projects and fulfill Korea’s mandatory military service) and RM’s own enlistment in December 2023.

Without his six other members filling the space around him, and in the absence of a packed schedule keeping him hurdling full speed ahead, RM (born Kim Namjoon) is loose, unguarded, often introspective and occasionally gleefully aimless.

Unlike the solo documentaries released by his bandmates, the BTS leader’s film contains no live performances of the completed songs because the album came out after he began his service. It makes the whole thing very insular, almost stifling at times, as viewers experience the ebbs and flows of doubt and enthusiasm, optimism and listlessness along with the artist.

Working with a collective of musicians and producers, including his main collaborator, creative director San Yawn, viewers will see RM experiment with new genres and sounds — and a new, slower pace that he says allowed him to be freewheeling for the first time in his decade-plus career.

“I’m the icon of ups and downs,” he jokes in the film. “I’m the icon of going full throttle or stopping abruptly. But I think my role as leader of BTS helped me rein that in a little. I always told myself, focus on balance . . . But even this emotionally volatile me is very me. So what do I do with this me?”

Even while he’s working on solo projects, RM is always thinking about BTS and what’s next for them when they reunite in 2025.

“I believe that the experience of being able to be completely free and honest will have a good influence on our team when BTS transitions to the next chapter,” he shares in the Q&A.

“I believe that everything happens for a reason, so I think I am driving in the right direction, and that those events are bound to have a good influence when we come back together,” he adds. “That’s the way I live, knowing that you realize what’s precious after losing it and that you can only take off something after you’ve tried it on. So I’m going to try to take it off this time.”

In BTS’s early days, RM’s moniker stood for “Rap Monster,” but he later pondered whether it could be for “Real Me,” a name that encompassed his many identities: rapper, idol, song writer, philanthropist, art collector, leader, and occasional wanderer.

Talking to the camera toward the end of the film he says, “It feels like I’m being my true self for the first time in a while.”

Right People, Wrong Place is in theaters Dec. 5.