October 05, 2024
Pharrell Williams is grateful the Lego company didn’t turn down his idea of an unconventional biopic Piece by Piece.
Williams attended a recent screening of his new animated documentary Piece by Piece and thanked Lego’s head of global entertainment Jill Wilfert for agreeing to collaborate 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,” the Happy hitmaker said, according to The Independent.
“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,” he added.
Williams explained his idea of a Lego film at the Toronto International Film Festival last month. He told Deadline’s Studio: “I didn’t want to do a documentary. 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.”
Along with Pharrell Williams Piece by Piece also features Jay-Z, Missy Elliot, Gwen Stefani, Busta Rhymes and Snoop Dogg.