Pharrell Williams‘ screening of his film Piece by Piece at the Toronto International Festival was interrupted by a PETA protester.
Holding a sign that read, “Stop supporting killing animals for fashion,” the protester stood in front of the stage and repeatedly chanted, “Pharrell, stop torturing animals.”
“You know what? You’re right,” he said, before telling her “God bless you” multiple times. He then asked the crowd to applaud for her and join in him saying “God bless you” as security was seen escorting her out the venue.
In a post shared to the social platform X, PETA said it confronted Pharrell “to remind the @LouisVuitton men’s creative director that animals suffer for fur & wildlife skins” and encourage him to switch to faux and vegan alternatives.
Pharrell later addressed the situation in more depth.
“Rome wasn’t made in a day. 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. That is not necessarily the way to do it,” he began.
“When I have conversations on behalf of organizations like that unbeknownst to them, they come out here and do themselves a disservice,” Pharrell continued. “But that’s okay. When that change comes, everybody in this room will remember that I told you we’re actually working on that. If she would have just asked me, I would have told her. But instead she wanted to repeat herself.”
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