Piece By Piece, the slightly inexplicable new Lego-animated documentary about the life of Pharrell Williams, is about to come out in theaters, and it had a premiere yesterday at the Toronto International Film Festival. Pharrell himself was in attendance, and so was a PETA protester who interrupted a post-screening Q&A session.

The PETA protestor wasn’t there specifically to protest Piece By Piece, which doesn’t seem to have anything that would incense animal rights activists. (When Lego Snoop Dogg turns into a dog in the trailer, it’s a Lego dog, not a real dog.) Instead, the protester was there to admonish Pharrell for his position as men’s creative director at Louis Vuitton.

During yesterday’s Q&A session, a protester came to the foot of the stage, holding a sign that saying “Pharrell: Stop Supporting Killing Animals for Fashion.” The protester yelled, “Pharrell’s collection is made from their blood!… Ostriches are being hung upside down, electrocuted with their necks slit!” While they talked, Pharrell encouraged the crowd to cheer and said, “You’re right. God bless you. It’s OK.” The protester continued to chant, “Pharrell, stop torturing animals!” Soon afterward, PETA posted a video of the incident on Twitter.

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! pic.twitter.com/Uf5mb1nly9

— PETA (@peta) September 10, 2024

Variety reports that the protester was removed from the theater. As they were being taken out, Pharrell told the crowd:

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. 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 in a statement to Variety, writing, “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.”