Piece by Piece stars like Snoop Dogg and Jay-Z didn’t know it was a LEGO movie while filming
A number of A-list appear in Pharrell Williams’ LEGO biopic – but they didn’t know what they were filming for until after the movie wrapped.
Piece by Piece is a new type of biopic, not only because it’s animated with LEGO but also because it features talking-head interviews and narrative anecdotes from A-list friends and collaborators of Pharrell from over the years. That includes familiar names like Jay-Z, Gwen Stefani, Justin Timberlake, Kendrick Lamar, Snoop Dogg, Pusha-T and Timbaland, to name but a few.
However, when the celebrities were recording their voiceovers, they weren’t aware that they would ultimately feature as animated minifigures, rather than as themselves on camera.
“We purposely did not tell anyone that that would be the finished product,” Pharrell told Variety. “We wanted people to just answer the questions and really give their full, unedited reactions to the opportunity to do the interviews.
“If we would’ve said, ‘Okay, this is going to be in LEGO,’ then people would have sort of curved what they were saying…We didn’t want them to be influenced by what we wanted. We wanted the purest part. And I feel like part of the magic of what makes this film pop the way it does is because it’s so vivid and it’s not scripted.”
As hinted by the reasons Pharrell has given for why he wanted his biopic to be made using LEGO, the musician didn’t want the style and PG rating to affect the substance of the interviews, leading to the secrecy.
“It would’ve started to have felt like, ‘Oh, we’re making this for kids.’ And it’s like, ‘No, we’re not. We’re making this for human beings,’” Pharrell continued. “And while I am a Black man that comes from a marginalized community, we wanted this story to feel universal, and that was the reason why we told it through the guise of LEGO.”
Of course, the stars did find out once their recording work was gone and, according to Pharrell, “everybody was pleasantly surprised and incredibly supportive.”
Piece by Piece will have staggered release dates around the world, starting in the US and Canada on October 8 and reaching other locations at various points throughout November, December, and into January 2025.
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