Pharrell Williams Was ‘on the Fence’ About Family Appearing in Doc: ‘Like to Keep My Private Life Just Private’ (Exclusive)

Pharrell Williams was initially skeptical about opening the doors to his personal life in the new animated documentary Piece by Piece.

Director Morgan Neville, who previously helmed the Mister Rogers documentary Won’t You Be My Neighbor, along with 50 Feet From Stardom, ultimately convinced the star to include wife Helen Lasichanh and their family in the movie.

“I was on the fence. I didn’t know if I really wanted to have my family in it, but, again, I turned everything over to him, so I followed his direction,” Williams, 51, tells PEOPLE at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival.

“He’s the director, right? So we followed his direction. It was cool,” Williams said at the PEOPLE /Entertainment Weekly suite at the festival. “I’d like to keep my private life just private, but this was a moment where it was just like, ‘Nope, let me let Morgan drive. He sees something that I don’t see. Let him go.’ And he did.”

The “Happy” hitmaker married wife Lasichanh, 44, in 2013, and they share four children, including their oldest son Rocket and triplets whom the couple welcomed in January 2017. Williams and Lasichanh typically keep their personal lives private and have not publicly revealed their triplets’ names.

“It’s interesting, man. It’s interesting. It’s different. It’s a whole other thing,” he tells PEOPLE of family life, now that his youngest children are 7 years old. “I’m 51. I love it. I love my children. I love watching them. I love that they exist.”

“If fruition could be a verb, I would fruit it. I loved watching them fruit. It could be a verb. I love watching them manifest. I just am very grateful to God and my wife that we were able to bring in four more souls in a crazy, crazy world and find our way. I’m very grateful.”

The new Williams-focused, LEGO-animated documentary was announced back in January 2024. The first trailer for the film released in June, teasing appearances from Gwen Stefani, Kendrick Lamar, Timbaland, Justin Timberlake, Busta Rhymes, JAY-Z and Snoop Dogg — all in LEGO form.

Williams tells PEOPLE the decision to use LEGO to tell his story in Piece by Piece was made on “day one” of the development process.

“It’s what I always played with when I was young. It’s what I would get for Christmas. And then when we had our first [child], Rocket, I would always send him little LEGO sets or pick them up, rather, from different places around the world,” he says.

“Right around that time we had just had the triplets, I knew that I wanted the triplets to hear and understand my story too. So it just all made sense, you know what I mean? I wanted it so that they could see Dad tell his story.”

Piece by Piece is in theaters Oct. 11.