What number of musicians may get a half dozen luminaries to seem of their biopic disguised as animated LEGO figures?
As is clear by the superstar roster in “Piece by Piece,” solely Pharrell Williams may have enticed Gwen Stefani, Kendrick Lamar, Timbaland, Justin Timberlake, Busta Rhymes, Jay-Z and Snoop Dogg to voice LEGO variations of themselves on this autobiographical journey.
It occurred as a result of Williams, 51, who could also be among the many most influential producers of all time for his improvements with rap, R&B and pop, can be a modified man since he turned 40.
When a biopic was first proposed, he handed.
“I didn’t discover my story notably fascinating. Nor did I wish to hear me. That’s what I had on my thoughts,” he mentioned throughout a digital press convention. “However folks mentioned. ‘However you’re an entertainer.’
“I at all times felt that manner about my voice. I simply do what I do for different folks and occasionally I’ve a tune for myself. I don’t watch my movies, I don’t hearken to myself.
“Most entertainers have sufficient vainness the place they’ll do what they do however my objectivity is totally different — as a result of I’m producer and have a excessive customary how efficiency ought to be, and it may be debilitating to me. So I mentioned I didn’t wish to do it.
“Then, my agent (who was extremely persistent) mentioned the magic phrases, ‘You are able to do it anyway you need it.’”
Williams enlisted “A grasp storyteller” in Morgan Neville, an Oscar winner for Greatest Documentary Characteristic for “20 Really feel from Stardom” (about backup singers) and a hitmaker along with his Mr. Rogers biopic, “Gained’t You Be My Neighbor?”
“You see how he can inform somebody’s story in a ravishing manner,” Williams mentioned. “So I let him select the songs and the way he wished to make use of them. However I wished the story informed via the filter of the LEGO world (as a result of) I wished my children” – he has 4 – “to know my story. As a result of we at all times purchase the children LEGO units and that’s what I performed with as a baby.”
“It’s fascinating,” Neville mentioned. “Pharrell talks about utilizing LEGO to cover a little bit bit higher. I truly really feel LEGO obtained us nearer. Out of the blue, we are able to get in his head and see all of the beats and do all this stuff you’ll be able to’t do in a documentary. It opened a door to the doable, to get extra of the creativity but additionally in a manner be extra intimate.
“I didn’t know,” he confessed, “if it might work in the beginning. However when the gears are working effectively collectively, and each step of the best way after we tried one thing, it was, ‘That’s nice!’
“Piece by Piece” opens in theaters Oct. 11
