PITTSBURGH — Maddie Ziegler can chart her rise to movie stardom based on what her fans call her when they see her on the street.
Early in the 19-year-old Murrysville native's career, they said, "You're Maddie from 'Dance Moms'!," referring to to the Lifetime reality show where she started dancing when she was just 8 years old. A few years later, fans began saying, "You're Maddie from 'Chandelier'!" as Ziegler starred in music videos for pop star Sia.
After working with Steven Spielberg on his "West Side Story" remake and starring in the powerful HBO Max drama "The Fallout," the refrain has mostly become simply, "Oh my gosh, are you Maddie Zielger?!"
"I thought I would only be recognized for one thing my whole life," Ziegler told the Post-Gazette. "It's really cool that people are able to find me in other things and not know me just from a reality show."
"West Side Story" featured Ziegler showing off her years of dance training as the Jets-aligned Velma. She has an even bigger role as Mia Reed in "The Fallout," which dropped last month on HBO Max. Ziegler's Mia is a rich influencer who befriends Vada (Jenna Ortega) after they both survive a school shooting.
Ziegler, who moved to Murrysville from the Penn Trafford area when she was 8, lives in Los Angeles now. She doesn't get back to Pittsburgh often, though she was able to spend Christmas at home last year for the first time in a few years.
"I find it to be so different from the life I now have in L.A.," she said, but it also provides her with a sense of peace that is sometimes tough to find out West.
She credits her western Pennsylvania upbringing for helping her to handle fame at such a young age.
"I'm so grateful that I didn't grow up in L.A.," Ziegler said. "To really have that initial start being in Pittsburgh and doing very normal kid things in the midst of working full time at the age of 8, it was really nice to after work go home and spend time with my family or neighbors.
"All of that was really necessary and important to my journey and where I am now."
Working on "West Side Story" served as a heck of an introduction to big-budget moviemaking for Ziegler. She was only 16 when she stepped onto Spielberg's set, which was intimidating at first before she realized that the famous director was "so incredibly nice and grounded and collaborative."
Since Ziegler was always dancing with a partner on "West Side Story," she had to build a lot of trust with fellow cast members. Though she and other female dancers had to perform the movie's "hardcore choreography" while wearing heels, working on a massive Hollywood movie musical was more than worth it, she said.
"I did not think that a little girl from Pittsburgh would be able to do something like that. It was the craziest experience ever and I'll never forget it. ... I just had the best time ever and I learned so much."
"The Fallout" was a much smaller project, but it allowed Ziegler to show off her acting chops. Written and directed by Megan Park, the film deals honestly with "uncomfortable situations and conversations" around school shootings, she said. Ziegler's dance moves for Mia's highly viewed social media videos helped her flesh out the character.
"Personally, I feel like she has a need to be wanted and a need to feel less alone," Ziegler said of Mia. "I think the one creative outlet in her life and the one part of her that wasn't lonely was dance. I relate to that in a lot of ways. ... It was the one thing in her life that would always show up for her."
Though she had met Ortega before, she said they didn't really get to know each other until they hung out for 11 hours at Ortega's apartment. Ziegler didn't check her phone until 1 a.m. and found frantic texts from her mom and sister making sure she was OK.
The actors' chemistry shines through in "The Fallout," especially in scenes that Ziegler said were largely improvised. She's quite proud of the film, noting that its ending illustrates that "there really hasn't been a solution yet" to the threat of school shootings. She has been heartened to see the largely positive reception the film has gotten and how it is "actually really impacting a lot of people."
Though Ziegler will always love dance, she hopes to focus on acting going forward.
"I hope people will see a different side of me and take me seriously as an actor because I genuinely love acting so much," she said. "I very much hope to continue doing projects, especially ones that have a powerful meaning to them. I'm so open to the opportunities that might come my way."
And though she doesn't miss Pittsburgh's cold winters, she has warm feelings for everyone back home.
"I'm so happy that I come from Pittsburgh. I really relate to it as a place of groundedness. I'm just grateful to everyone who's been supportive and loving on my journey."
