Pharrell Williams was interrupted by animal rights activist group PETA at the Princess of Wales Theatre in Toronto last night (September 10) during the TIFF premiere of his new LEGO biopic, Piece By Piece.
Just as the Q&A portion of the event was about to begin, a protester ran down towards the stage holding a sign that read, "PHARRELL, STOP SUPPORTING KILLING ANIMALS FOR FASHION," in response to his role as men’s creative director for Louis Vuitton.
“Your Louis Vuitton collection…Pharrell’s collection is made from their blood,” the protested yelled. “Pharrell stop torturing animals. Ostriches are being hung upside down, electrocuted with their necks slit!”
PETA later tweeted a video of the protest, captioning it with, "We CRASHED @Pharrell’s @pbpthemovie premiere at @TIFF_NET to remind the @LouisVuitton men’s creative director that animals suffer for fur & wildlife skins. Do the right thing and switch to faux & vegan alternatives NOW!"
To his credit, Pharrell difused the situation by calmly agreeing with the protester, who didn't seem to care about his words.
“You’re right, you’re right, god bless you, it’s OK,” Pharrell said to them.
After the protester was removed from the room, he addressed the criticism, admitting, “Rome wasn’t made in a day. And sometimes, when you have plans to change things and situations, you have to get in a situation of power and of influence where you can change people’s minds and help progression.”
“That is not necessarily the way to do it, and 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. "But that’s OK, when that change comes, everybody in this room will remember that I told you, we are actually working on that. And if she would’ve just asked me, I would’ve told her. But instead, she wanted to repeat herself.”
PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman responded to Pharrell's comments in a statement to Variety, saying, “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.”
Watch footage from the incident below.