The pop singer Sia has apologized for what some have described as images of pedophilia in her music video for the song “Elastic heart.” In it 12 year old Maddie Ziegler has some suggestive interactions with 28 year old actor Shia LaBeouf.
In the video the two are in a cage with LaBeouf shirtless in flesh colored shorts and Ziegler in flesh colored sleeveless overalls. They engage in some, shall we say, suggestive dancing and wrestling moves with one another.
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The singer tweeted, “I apologize to those who feel triggered by #ElasticHeart My intention was to create some emotional content, not to upset anybody.”
Sia also tweeted, “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.”
Ziegler herself described shooting the music video with LaBeouf to Entertainment Weekly saying, “It was amazing. The story behind it is a lot different than the “Chandelier” video. When I did “Elastic Heart” obviously it was the same concept with my leotard and wig, but we were really dirty. I’m going to be honest with you, it was the most dirty I’ve ever been in my whole entire life. My shower was disgusting, and the water was like…ugh. I was disgusted. We had to rehearse in the cage, so we could get used to it, and we just kept getting dirtier and dirtier. And I brought wipes and everything and a change of clothes for when we left, and I was like, ‘Shia, you’re gonna need these, ’ and I kept giving him wipes. But he was like, fine with it, and I was like, Ewwww! I don’t like being dirty!”
On LaBeouf she said, “I felt like I knew him when I met him. Before we started filming “Elastic Heart, ” he took my mom and I to eat, just to start to know each other and stuff. You have to get used to your dance partner. Even though we’re battling and fighting against each other, we still have to know each other, you know? You can’t just walk in and be like, “Hey, let’s start dancing with each other!”
