When Los Angeles is hit with a heatwave, there are only a few things you can do. You can head west for the beach, head north for some hotel pool in The Valley, or east to San Gabriel for air conditioning and Chinese food. Whatever you do, it is absolutely NOT recommended you head for Downtown, where a thinly veiled layer of car exhaust envelops the tallest building and turns the city into a convection oven which can only be alleviated by the setting of the sun, whereby thereafter you will probably need a light sweater.

Maddie Ziegler and I are Downtown anyway, in a studio on the fifth floor of the Spring Arts Tower before her photoshoot. The building is rumored to be haunted by an old watchman, whose groans and jingling keys are heard throughout the third floor. I’m not sure what Ziegler thinks of ghosts or if she believes in them at all. She does, however, seem unamused by any past, taking only what she needs from where she’s been to effectively get to where she’s going. If she keeps any ghosts around, it’s best assumed they exist in forms of the intangible, in visions of gratitude and learned lessons, small reminders of what she’s capable of.

Ziegler stars in My Old Ass, in select theaters September 13 and everywhere September 27, from writer and director Megan Park, whose 2021 feature film debut The Fallout cast Ziegler alongside Wednesday actor Jenna Ortega. My Old Ass follows incoming college freshman Elliott (Maisy Stella) while she spends her summer on her family’s cranberry farm in Muskoka Lakes, Ontario. On Elliott’s 18th birthday, her and her friends Ruthie (Ziegler) and Ro (Kerrice Brooks) go camping and take mushrooms, where Elliott conjures her 39-year-old self (Aubrey Plaza). Older Elliott warns younger Elliott about what to do and who to avoid, transforming the way her 18-year-old self perceives her life, her family, and her future.

Ziegler and Stella, who have both been working public figures since they were children, (Ziegler famously for Dance Moms, Stella famously for the musical sister duo Lennon and Maisy, who went viral for their cup-song-cover of Robyn’s “Call Your Girlfriend” and would later go on to star in the popular drama Nashville) have maintained a friendship since they were eight. “It was so fun because I got to work with Maisy,” Ziegler says of My Old Ass filming. “Maisy and I were fans of each other actually. We’ve always dreamt of doing something together, so it was cool to make that a reality.” She continues, “On top of that, having Megan Park be the one to pull us together was such a full circle moment, because I did Megan Park’s first film. I think she’s a genius filmmaker and writer. The first film I did with her was very heavy and important”—she’s talking about The Fallout, which details the aftermath of two high school girls who hid in a bathroom stall during a school shooting—“and this one just felt lighthearted and easy for me in terms of acting. It was fun. I had a really good time. It felt like summer camp, really.”

Soon-to-be 22, Ziegler enters her young adult life with an already layered career, marked by three defining moments (or rather, eras): the aforementioned time as a young star on Dance Moms, (which, if today, is not survived by streamers and rewatchers, is otherwise remembered in memes and TikTok sounds); her time as a muse dancing in a series of Sia’s music videos and making public appearances alongside the singer; and now, her acting endeavors, which are accompanied by fashion campaign features and designer runway invites. She wore Alexander McQueen to this year’s SAG Awards, a few weeks later attended Thom Browne and Miu Miu shows at Paris Fashion Week, and shortly after, starred in an Acne Studios campaign. “We’ve had some really fun moments with fashion,” Ziegler says. “Tonya [Ziegler’s makeup artist] bleached my brows for Paris Fashion Week, so it’s cool to express myself in different ways and not feel married to one look.”

In addition to The Fallout and My Old Ass, Ziegler was a dancer and cast member on Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story, and was the lead in Fitting In, from award-winning writer and director Molly McGlynn, where Ziegler portrays McGlynn’s real-life struggles with the reproductive condition MRKH syndrome. She also stars in the 2024 tragic-comedy short Kodar: The Primordial God of Light and Ether, where she’s cast as a young patient receiving a cancer diagnosis on Halloween from a doctor dressed in fictional horned god cosplay.

While My Old Ass required a more light-hearted performance from Ziegler, The Fallout, Fitting In, and Kodar ask the actor to confront harsher realities. “I’ve had so many life experiences even though I’m so young, so there are many places that I can pull from that have been really intense in my life,” she says. “That’s something that I worked through with my acting coach. Acting is such an emotional release for me. It’s very therapeutic. Growing up, I felt like I didn’t really have a voice and I would let go and release through my movement with dance. But now, I actually have dialogue to release that through.”

When I ask about Ziegler’s time in competitive dance, she responds with a tone that evokes some kind of fondness, an acceptance, a maturity: “I wouldn’t even be acting if it weren’t for dance...I’m so grateful for that experience. Dance is still super important in my life. I think it gave me all of the tools to be able to apply myself in every other avenue,” she shares.

Simultaneously, Ziegler has been open about the work it’s taken to shift out of a perfection-driven mindset. “It’s an ongoing process for me. I have really good moments where I feel likeI improve in a lot of ways, and then there are setbacks, but I think that’s normal with any case, in terms of being human. I’m constantly going through those phases. It’s really dependent on [my] stress levels and what I’m doing at the time. I’m grateful that now, I do get a lot of relief, whereas when I was younger, it felt like constant stress and a need to be perfect all the time. Now, I’ve been able to let go of the intense perfectionism.”

Ziegler’s situation is sort of paradoxical. In one way, she shares a similarity to other people in her age group, experiencing those inevitable years of your early twenties when life feels to be all about self-discovery and possibility. In another way, the life she’s lived—one of exposure, a pseudo-adult at the age of eight, televised—is an experience shared by very few. “I’ve lived so many lives. I feel so much older than I am, but in my career, I feel like a baby,” she confesses.

The paradox evokes that Didion quote, amusing in its irony, but for Ziegler, it might actually apply: “One of the mixed blessings of being twenty and twenty-one and even twenty-three is the conviction that nothing like this, all evidence to the contrary notwithstanding, has ever happened before.” Maybe it feels that way because Ziegler has a 14-year-long entertainment career under her belt at the age of 21, has never been accused of selling out (crucial in the modern mediascape), holds an impressive, athletic, nearly unattainable talent amongst a generation notorious for celebutantes, and has a range that puts her in front of the cameras of film veterans like Spielberg and those up-and-coming like Park.

The cameras are nothing new to her, but the way she expresses her art in front of them is. “I’m applying myself the most I ever have to be an actor,” she says. “It really challenges me and pushes me to make new relationships with the cast and the crew and to put myself in places that I would feel super nervous to be in. I’m definitely not introverted, I get along with people well and I’m super open to conversation, but my most comfortable self is being a homebody, so this new chapter is definitely a push for me and I’m proud of myself for taking these steps.”

A few days after our conversation, Ziegler will leave for Budapest to film for something yet-to-be-announced. She admits that part of her newfound autonomy is exercised in producing. “So,” she explains of her producer position on two upcoming projects, “I really do have an actual say in the things that I’m doing and I get to make a lot of the big decisions, which is really exciting and slightly scary...but I’m loving it. I love being able to stand up for myself and not feel scared to voice my opinion.”

While Ziegler enters an era of new experiences and ideas, confronted with the unfamiliar, she returns to dance and the relationship between her mind and her body, regularly attending both mental and physical therapy. She explains, “Gearing up for this role, I have to be very physical. Even though I’m grateful that my body is capable of a lot of things, I’ve had to come to terms with the fact that it’s not how it was when I was 11. Things don’t come as naturally to me in terms of my flexibility or my agility. I’m taller now. I went through puberty. All these things were so much easier when I was 11. So, I try to really take care of my body and prevent injury because my body is literally my career.” She recites something her physical therapist once said: “‘If you are mentally fatigued, your body is going to get injured too.’ I have to take care of myself mentally and be in a good place so that my body can follow...I am trying to be as present as possible and listen to myself and not push myself to the point of risking my health.”

As Ziegler gracefully bulldozes ahead, excelling because of her outward confidence that feels both quiet and shared, she quickly mentions a philosophy that explains her compartmentalization of the past and, henceforth, her control of it. “When you’re really dedicating yourself,” she says, “you have to leave your real life and commit to something else for a certain amount of time.” 

Photographer: Amber Asaly at Abstract Management

Stylist: Jared Ellner at A-Frame Agency

Writer: Franchesca Baratta

Hair: Graham Nation at The Wall Group

Makeup: Tonya Brewer at The Wall Group

Flaunt Film: Jordan Moran

 DP: Jonathan Ho

1st AC: Duy Nguyen

Production Assistant: Ella Brignoni