Pharrell Williams director: I cannot imagine documentary about him without Lego

The director of a documentary about Pharrell Williams has said he could not imagine making the film without the use of Lego due to the way the US musician sees the world.

The biopic Piece By Piece, which sees Williams portrayed in Lego animation, was screened at a gala at the Royal Festival Hall (RFH) to close out the BFI London Film Festival (LFF) on Sunday.

On the red carpet, director Morgan Neville told the PA news agency that using the Danish toy was Williams’ idea.

He added: “He felt if he could tell his story this way, it could reach not only his own children, but a lot of children too, and it’s a film really about the power of creativity and imagination.

“And I didn’t realise just how perfect the Lego was going to be for the film, but Pharrell sees things in his brain, and because we were doing animation we could actually kind of go there.

“And he sees colour when he hears music. He has synaesthesia, is what it’s called. And so we were able to actually animate all that, which you couldn’t normally do in a movie.

“I can’t imagine making this film in any other way at this point.”

Williams has spoken about having chromesthesia, or sound-colour synaesthesia before, and how it allows him to see colour when he creates music.

Neville, who controversially used artificial intelligence (AI) in his film Roadrunner to generate the voice of the late celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain, was also asked about the technology.

The Oscar winner, whose music documentary 20 Feet From Stardom won an Academy Award in 2013, said: “I think it can be creatively used in a lot of ways, and I think generative AI can be good but I think it could also be very lazy.

“So I think it’s (going to) be a double-edged sword like these things are.”

Neville also told Williams that the next film should cover him becoming creative director of Louis Vuitton last year.

He said: “This (documentary) took five years, so nothing soon. I would say, no matter what, it’s (going to) take a while, but as I was finishing this film, he started working for Louis Vuitton and moved to Paris, and he said, ‘Well, should that be part of this film?’.

“And I said: ‘Pharrell, that’s the next film.’ So the sequel would be Pharrell goes to Paris.”

For a brief moment during the screening, activists from campaign group People For The Ethical Treatment of Animals (Peta) shouted and held a banner, referring to the use of fur in some of Louis Vuitton’s collections.

They called on Williams’ “power for good” to stop the fashion brand using the material, Peta senior campaigns manager Kate Werner said.

A spokeswoman for LFF said in a statement to PA: “At tonight’s protest at RFH our security team followed the protocol, asked the protesters to leave and then escorted the protesters out of the auditorium.

“Pharrell interacted with the protesters on stage. We feel it was managed well and any attempt to remove them earlier would have exacerbated the problem.”

The end of the LFF also saw the animated film Memoir Of A Snail, starring Succession star Sarah Snook and musician Nick Cave, win the best film award.