If there’s one other artist most associated with Sia it has to be dancer Maddie Ziegler. The pair have collaborated on so many videos and performances and even concert tours together, it’s hard to picture one without the other.
In a new interview, Sia now says that was very much part of a plan on her part, and an effort to keep the young dancer safe. In fact, her instincts to protect the former “Dance Moms” star even extended to an odd encounter with disgraced Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein.
“I kept her off a plane that Harvey Weinstein tried to get her on,” Sia told the Zach Sang Show on Wednesday. “I know there’s times where my insight has really made a difference, like kept her safe.”
“Yeah, that was really disgusting,” the singer continued. “When he invited her, that’s when I called [Ziegler’s mom] Melissa, I had to. I just said, ‘Please don’t, do not do that.'”
Sia and Ziegler first started working together when Maddie was only 11 years old and Sia immediately felt “this extreme compulsion to protect her” that has not wavered over the years. “I just love her as a mother,” Sia said.
She did have to admit to the irony that while she was hiding behind wigs to avoid the growing spotlight on her, she was thrusting the “Dance Moms” star into even bigger fame than she already knew with each subsequent music video.
“She would say to me, ‘Don’t be silly, I was already famous and I wanted to be famous,’” Sia recalled. “And I would say say, ‘And you know, it can stop at any time, right? If you want it to stop, I can make it stop. You can just go back to being a normal person again.’ But she just said, ‘No, I love performing. I love dancing, and I love acting so much.'”
Since their first collaboration, Ziegler has continued her meteoric rise into stardom with projects as varied as reality television judge, a memoir (at only 15 years old!), voiceover work for animation and acting in feature films, including the upcoming remake of “West Side Story.”
And she has continued to collaborate with Sia, most recently appearing alongside Kate Hudson and Leslie Odom Jr. for their seventh overall music video together.
And through it all, Sia has been there, joking that she might even be seen as a “pain in the butt” by Ziegler’s manager for doing things like suggesting that Ziegler not take an upcoming film project.
“I felt that the film wasn’t good enough for her, and so I called Melissa, and was like, ‘Please don’t do this, like this isn’t good for her career. It’s not good for her long term credibility. This is not a good co-star to be in a movie with,'” Sia said, teasing but not telling the film or its co-star.
