Maddie Ziegler avoided dance-related acting roles before Pretty Lethal

Maddie Ziegler refused to accept dance-related acting roles until the script for Pretty Lethal came along.

The 23-year-old found fame when she was eight years old on the reality series Dance Moms and is best known for dancing in the music videos for Sia's songs Chandelier, Cheap Thrills and Elastic Heart.

When she took a break from dancing during the 2020 pandemic due to an injury, Ziegler's acting career took off, with appearances in films such as The Fallout and My Old Ass.

In Pretty Lethal, Ziegler combines her passions for dance and acting by playing one of five ballerinas who have to fight for survival after they witness a murder at a roadside inn in Budapest, Hungary.

Reflecting on her return to on-screen dancing, The Book of Henry star admitted on the Therapuss podcast that she tried to avoid roles connected to dance for the first few years.

"I was battling that whole thing of like, 'I have to only do jobs in acting that are not related to dance' because they're only going to hire me if it's a dancer role and then I'm going to be typecast as that, and then people are gonna not take me seriously," she explained.

"So I needed to prove myself as an actor to be like, 'I can do this on my own, without having the dance thing a part of it.' But then it had been enough time, and then Pretty Lethal came into my lap, and I was like 1000% yes."

Ziegler and her co-stars Lana Condor, Millicent Simmonds, Iris Apatow and Avantika spent a few months training on their own before flying to Budapest for a bootcamp, where they spent three to four weeks training in ballet and stunt work with their doubles.

The star added that the process "brought (her) back" to her dance training, and she was determined to do as many of her character's moves as possible.

"I was like, I want to do everything I can. I want to do as much dancing (as I can)," she stated. "I did almost all of my dancing and almost all of my stunt stuff. I was like, I want to do it all."

Pretty Lethal, also starring Uma Thurman, is now streaming on Prime Video.