Initial reactions to Sia’s confronting Elastic Heart video were mixed, with some viewers expressing their shock with its possible connotations to pedophilia. Still, many others were moved by its artistic content. Now, Sia herself has revealed the video is but the second in a trilogy of clips, meaning another is on its way.
In a behind the scenes video for US dance network DanceOn, banana-face Sia explains the meaning behind the Elastic Heart video, starring warring tween dancer Maddie Ziegler and Actual Cannibal Shia LaBeouf, and the process of making it, all with a bunch of bananas concealing her face.
The first part of the trilogy was of course Sia’s award-winning Chandelier video, which introduced Ziegler, a former star of reality show Dance Moms, to the wider public. Sia said she brought across the entire team from Chandelier to the Elastic Heart set and had such a good time they decided to make the series a trilogy. There was one addition this time though – Shia LaBeouf.
“We thought it would be interesting if [Shia] is working with Maddie as one of his self-states — maybe his inner child or one of his demons,” she explains of the video’s meaning and her decision to cast her “favourite actor” Shia LaBeouf. It is not confirmed at this stage whether LaBeouf, or even Ziegler, will star in the forthcoming third video.
“Sia probably picked me because she probably identifies with some aspect of my personality that will push boundaries a little bit,” adds LaBeouf. “I think we’re in this middle ground between pop and something else. I also believe in the healing power of art. It’s cathartic. You listen to the album and it’s just like reading a diary. All of my work, especially for the last five years, has just been my soul bared on film.”
The clip also gives us a look at Sia’s onset involvement in making the clip, along with co-director Daniel Askill and choreographer Ryan Heffington, at which point we get an actual look at her face, sans bananas or paper bag.
Sia says her intentions in creating the video were to move people. “It is visceral for me, it just has to elicit some form of excitement. I have to be moved, I’m so rarely moved.” Watch both the behind-the-scenes video and the original Elastic Heart clip below.
