This week, Harry and Meghan, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, celebrated National Voter Registration Day in the US with a public service announcement declaring that “every voice matters” in the upcoming presidential election.
Pharrell Williams might be happier if he'd kept his mouth shut.
In an interview published the day after the September 10 debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Trump, the multi-talented musician told the BBC that Hollywood Reporter He was often “annoyed” by celebrity political endorsements.
“There are celebrities that I respect and that have an opinion, but not all of them,” he said. “I am one of those people.” [who says]“What the hell? Shut up. Nobody asked you.”
Williams' comments coincided with a week marked by a pair of notable Tuesdays: the first, the first presidential debate, and the second, National Voter Registration Day.
During that time, big names in the music industry, including Taylor Swift and Billie Eilish, have expressed support for Harris-Walz’s Democratic bid and urged their fans (Swift subtly, Eilish less so) to follow suit.
“The choice is clear,” Eilish wrote on Tuesday in Instagram.
The public won’t see that kind of message from Williams, who said he “doesn’t really do politics” (though he admitted he would never vote for the “far right”).
“I prefer not to interfere,” he said, calling himself more of a “humanitarian” than an “activist.”
“I'm going to vote the way I want. I care about my people and the country, but I feel there's a lot of work to do and what really interests me is action,” he added.
Williams is the founder of two equity-based nonprofits: Yellow provides educational technology to underserved youth, while Black Ambition funds and mentors Black and Hispanic entrepreneurs with a mission to close the wealth gap.
“I'm not an activist, but I believe in action,” Williams said.
Despite his comments, the “Get Lucky” singer openly supported former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during her 2016 presidential campaign and appeared at one of her rallies alongside Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.
“Politics is not my specialty,” he said at the time. “But I am a human being. I am a human being with a family, a human being who shares this Earth with other human beings. This election is too important. I couldn’t just stand on the sidelines and stay silent.”
Two years later, in 2018, Williams sent then-President Trump a cease-and-desist letter for playing his song “Happy” at a political event hours after a mass shooting at a Pittsburgh synagogue. In the letter, Williams’ attorney said there was “nothing ‘happy’ about the tragedy inflicted on our country on Saturday and no permission was granted to him to use this song for this purpose.”
But regardless of whether Williams publicly endorses a candidate or not, production on her Lego-themed animated biopic “Piece by Piece” has already wrapped, she told The Hollywood Reporter, and the film is set to open Oct. 11.
“When it came time to tell my story,” Williams said The times Last week, he chose the Lego format because “I wanted to tell it in a way that children could see it too.”
