On Tuesday (Sept. 10) night, a PETA activist confronted Pharrell Williams during his Piece by Piece Q&A at the Toronto Film Festival.
The woman called out Williams for using wild animal skins and fur as the current men’s creative director at Louis Vuitton. Shouting, “Stop torturing animals,” she was met with a surprisingly calm response from the Virginia native: “You’re right. God bless you.”
The protester evidently didn’t have much else to say, considering she continued repeating the phrase until three security guards escorted her out. In a clip shared online, Williams addressed her remarks not too long after: “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.”
“Sitting in my position, when I have conversations on behalf of organizations like that, unbeknownst to them, they come out here and do themselves a disservice,” he continued. “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.”
PETA’s Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman also issued a statement regarding the incident. “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,” she said, per Rolling Stone. “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.”
Piece by Piece is slated to hit theaters on Oct. 11. As Rap-Up previously reported, the animated film will document Williams’ life journey up until now. Kendrick Lamar, N.O.R.E., Snoop Dogg and Gwen Stefani are among those expected to make LEGO cameos in the biopic.
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