Pharrell Williams Talks New Lego Set and ‘Piece by Piece’ in Paris

Ahead of the release of his animated Lego biopic “Piece by Piece” with Focus Features, Pharrell Williams was the star guest at a special event held by Lego in Paris, where the multi-hyphenate took to the stage to discuss his growing collaboration with the company.

Alongside the film, which is directed by Morgan Neville and recently screened at Telluride and Toronto to reviews praising its originality, Williams has teamed with Lego on a new toy set, which features a black-and-gold rocket ship with a vibrant jet stream of colors.

The new set, titled “Over the Moon,” was on display at the cosmic-themed event, held at Espace Niemeyer, the iconic Oscar Niemeyer-designed former headquarters of the French Communist Party. The event was attended by an array of local creatives — of which Williams is now one, having recently moved to Paris to take up his position as Louis Vuitton’s men’s creative director — including actor Kevin Dias, DJ Bob Sinclar and Daft Punk’s Thomas Bangalter (whose former manager and Ed Banger records founder Busy P performed a DJ set of mostly French electro).

“Over the Moon,” which launches later this month and will also be showcased next week at an event in LA, was derived from “Piece by Piece.” The film features scenes in which the animated Lego incarnation of Williams goes into space, and early source of inspiration he discussed on stage in Paris.

“When I was 4 or 5 years old, I used to stare outside the window of Atlantis Apartments where I lived. I used to stare into the night sky because the stars were so vivid, and I had all these questions that my mother really couldn’t answer – how far does space go, why is this star blue and why is this star twinkling?” Williams said, speaking to Alero Akuya, Lego’s vice president of global brand development. “For me, space always represented this… space. It never really had all the answers, so it stood out to me as something that was always fresh. You could come up with a new question every night if you wanted to.”

Of the “Piece by Piece” film, Williams said his “favorite thing” about the movie was being able tell his story through the guise of Lego animation. “I’m a Black man, from a marginalized community, so to tell my story this way made it more universal, so people could just see it for what it is,” he said, adding that while Lego was something he played with as a child, it “ignites and connects with the inner child of anyone, of any age, 8 to 80.”

The new “Over the Moon” set features Lego’s widest range of customizable mini-figure skin tones, with 50 mini-figure heads included, 30 of which were designed especially for the set.

Williams’ partnership with Lego will also extend to his non-profit foundation Yellow, which works to even the odds for children through education. This collaboration will see the launch of a new Lego Build the Change global challenge, aimed at bringing more creative play to kids worldwide.