Pharrell Williams had the premiere of his Piece by Piece premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival interrupted by an animal rights protestor.
Following the screening of his new LEGO documentary, Pharrell took the stage at the Princess of Wales Theatre for a Q&A. Before the Q&A began, however, a protestor ran on stage with a sign, repeatedly chanting "Pharrell stop torturing animals." This was seemingly in response to Pharrell's role as the Men's Creative Director of Louis Vuitton — a company that uses animal materials, including a handbag made with crocodile skin.
Pharrell told the protester, "You're right," and encouraged the crowd to give a round of applause and say "God bless you."
After the protestor was removed, he said, "You know, Rome wasn't made in a day, and sometimes when you have plans to change things and situations, you have to get in a position of power and of influence where you can change people's minds and help progression."
With a nod to where the protestor had been taken, he added, "That is not necessarily the way to do it."
He continued, "Sitting in my position, when I have conversations on behalf of organizations like that, unbeknownst to them [protestors], they come out here and do themselves a disservice. But that's okay. When that change comes, everybody in this room will remember that I told you we're actually working on that, and if she would have just asked me, I would have told her, but instead she wanted to repeat herself."
In a statement to Variety, PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman said, "We would be happy to stop disrupting Pharrell's appearances but despite a lot of lip service, he's yet to ditch fur and exotic skins. Pharrell can decide in a heartbeat, today, to use his power for good and stop being complicit in cruelty — it's quite easy to be kind."
It's the second notable protest of the day at TIFF, as the film Russians at War was picketed by supporters of Ukraine.