Pharrell Williams is thankful someone took a risk on his brand of unconventional storytelling.
At a recent screening of his new animated documentary Piece by Piece, the 13x Grammy winner expressed his gratitude to Lego‘s head of global entertainment Jill Wilfert for saying “yes” and collaborating on the film.
“I don’t want to make it all heavy, but she said yes to a Black man’s story, from a marginalized community. When I was young, that’s my origin story,” said Williams, according to The Independent.
Over the past decade, the 75-year-old toy company has expanded into animated features, with The Lego Movie (2014), The Lego Batman Movie (2017), The Lego Ninjago Movie (2017) and The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part (2019).
Williams added at the screening, “Lego could have said no. I’m Black, in case you hadn’t figured that out. But they said yes. I’m not Batman. This is not Harry Potter intellectual property. It’s just me, from Virginia. But they said yes.”
Pharrell Williams of Piece By Piece at the Deadline Studio during the Toronto International Film Festival on Sept. 9, 2024 in Toronto, Canada.
Michael Buckner for Deadine
Premiering Oct. 11 in theaters, Piece by Piece is a unique biopic that explores Williams’ life and work in the animated Lego form, a suggestion the artist made in early conversations with director Morgan Neville, serving as a metaphor for the ‘Happy’ artist’s creative vision of the world.
“I didn’t want to do a documentary,” said Williams last month at Deadline’s Studio during the Toronto International Film Festival. “And the minute that I agreed to, I knew I wanted it to be in Lego and I knew I wanted Morgan to be the storyteller. I turned it over to him. I love what he’s done from 20 Feet from Stardom to even the new Steve Martin [doc]. This guy’s like really good at it.”
Piece by Piece also features Jay-Z, Missy Elliot, Gwen Stefani, Busta Rhymes and Snoop Dogg.