'She wanted me to imagine I'm a wolf,' the 'Dance Moms' star said of Sia's direction.
Celebrities, they're just like us – awkward text messages and all.
Dance Moms star Maddie Ziegler opened up to Cosmopolitan Magazine just days after her second music video collaboration with Sia, "Elastic Heart," hit the web. In the controversial clip, the 12-year-old dancer faces off against a nearly-nude Shia Labeouf in a giant cage. (See it to believe it here.)
"He texted me today and told me, 'Brilliant job on the video.' And I was like, 'Who is this?'" Ziegler revealed of her latest exchange with the 28-year-old actor. 'I don't even know how he got my number! He's like, 'Shia.' And I felt bad. I was like, 'Oops, didn't realize that.'"
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Ziegler also revealed that she had no clue who the Transformers actor was when he was cast in the project.
"I was like, 'Wait, who's Shia?'" she recalled. "So I looked up pictures of him and I was like, 'Oh, OK, he's familiar.' Then they were like, 'He was in Even Stevens and the movie Holes and I was just freaking out. I was like, 'Oh my god, I'm having a Disney moment here.'"
With roles in Nymphomaniac, Fury, and a very public meltdown/performance art piece last year, Labeouf has no doubt been working tirelessly to shed his Disney image for good. Even the "Elastic Heart" video was not without its critics, prompting Sia to apologize on Twitter.
I anticipated some 'pedophelia!!!' Cries for this video. All I can say is Maddie and Shia are two of the only actors I felt could play
— sia (@Sia) January 8, 2015I apologize to those who feel triggered by #ElasticHeart My intention was to create some emotional content, not to upset anybody. ?
— sia (@Sia) January 8, 2015NEWS: 6 Celebs Who Burned Through All Their Good Will in 2014
The direction Ziegler says she received from Sia backs that up.
"She wanted me to imagine I'm a wolf, and we'd been living in the cage for a while," Maddie Explains. "That's why I'm always hissing in the video and chasing and crawling. He's just normal. In the beginning of the video I am the strong one, trying to beat him down and then towards the end when he lifts me and throws me around and stuff, that's when he starts to battle me back. But by the end we've become friends, I guess you could call it."
What do you think of the buzz surrounding "Elastic Heart"? Catch up on the controversy in the video below.