‘I said no multiple times’ – Lizzo’s former back-up dancers Arianna Davis and Crystal Williams speak out in new interview and describe how they were weight shamed
Arianna Davis and Crystal Williams, two of the former back-up dancers who have accused Lizzo of creating a hostile work environment and sexual harassment in a lawsuit, have opened up about their alleged experiences working with the superstar in a new interview.
The two dancers detailed instances described in the lawsuit – including allegedly being pressured to touch a nude performer at a strip club in Amsterdam’s red light district – during an interview with CBS News.
Davis, Williams, and former back-up dancer Noelle Rodriguez made headlines after filing the lawsuit against Lizzo, her touring company Big Grrrl Big Touring Inc., and dance captain Shirlene Quigley.
Davis claimed Lizzo, 35, urged her to touch the nude stripper and got the whole club to chant her name before she finally gave in, despite her reluctance to do so.
‘It’s an understanding in the camp that if you don’t really participate and try to get in with Lizzo, you won’t be booked on as many jobs. She won’t like you as much. You’ll be ostracized later,’ Davis told CBS.
Davis claimed both she and fellow plaintiff Rodriguez were reluctant to attend the show, but went anyways and stayed in the corner, away from the stage.
However, Davis alleges she was ‘singled out’ by Lizzo to touch the dancer.
‘She was kind of going around, inviting people to touch the nude performers. And I guess it was my turn,’ Davis claimed.
Davis claimed Lizzo began chanting her name after her previous attempts to get her to touch the dancer failed. ‘She was like, “Oh Ari, it’s your turn to do it.” And I was like, “No, I’m okay.” She was like, “No, come on, do it.” I said no again and she said, “Ari! Ari!” And then everyone in the club kind of joins in, they’re like, “Ari! Ari!” So of course I had to do it because I couldn’t get out of that situation.’
‘So I briefly, you know, touched and everyone started laughing. It was funny to them because me of all people — they see me as like a very modest or, you know, that kind of person.’
‘I was mortified,’ she said. ‘I even remember trying to cope with how awkward I felt by making a joke about the lotion that the nude performer was wearing…. I tried to laugh it off, and unfortunately I left soon after that with Noelle.’
Lizzo, who has embraced being a body positive icon, has also been accused of body shaming the dancers.
Davis recalled an alleged instance where Lizzo subtly communicated concerns she had gained weight.
‘I believe she was trying to allude to the fact that I was gaining weight in a way that she wouldn’t get canceled, if that makes sense,’ she said.
‘It was not a like, “you’re fat, you’re fired.” It was never “you’re gaining too much weight,” it was never blatant, it was very nuanced.’
During a meeting with her dancers, Davis claimed Lizzo told them they should all be ‘grateful’ to be working with her as dancers have been fired for gaining weight.
‘She kind of looked at me, and I don’t know if she remembers that she looked at me, but it always felt like that,’ Davis said.
Davis alleged Lizzo and the choreographer arranged a private meeting with her, where they raised concerns she didn’t ‘seem the same.’ Davis believes they were attempting to convey she had gained weight without overtly saying so.
‘There was this underlying air of, “Why are you bigger?”‘ Davis elaborated.
In the lawsuit, the dancers also claim Lizzo had accused them of drinking alcohol before performances, which they denied.
‘In fact, alcohol was never even allowed in our dressing room or on our rider, which is the food and drinks provided to us. So, it was physically impossible for us to do that,’ Davis told CBS.
‘But we were the ones that were blamed for drinking on the job. It was stated to us, by Lizzo, she was like, “It doesn’t matter if I am doing it, doesn’t matter if the band, or anyone else is doing it, you guys can’t do it.”‘
Williams said she was subsequently let go after denying the drinking allegation to Lizzo in a meeting.
‘For me personally, we did have a meeting, the one that Ari was speaking of with her mentioning the allegations of us drinking before shows. And in that particular meeting, I did ask to speak, which I informed her and let her know that us drinking before shows was never the case, and that I would never want to put her, the show, or ourselves or our jobs in jeopardy,’ she said.
‘She kind of just blew it off and said, “Okay, well if you’re not drinking before well then good for you, you guys are still not performing the way you need to. People are probably saying that because of how you’re performing.”
‘And then days later I was let go in a hotel lobby.’
The lawsuit also includes allegations against dance captain Shirlene Quigley. Quigley, according to the lawsuit, shared ‘lewd sexual fantasies,’ and publicly discussed the virginity of one of the plaintiffs while berating those who had had pre-marital sex. She is also accused of heavily spreading her faithin the workplace.
Asked if they believed Lizzo was aware of the sexual harassment they allegedly endured from Quigley, Davis told CBS: ‘I think Lizzo definitely knew that Shirlene was a very outwardly religious person, which is not a problem, it’s just when you try to force that onto other people and then in turn make some kind of strange sexual… it’s just a sexually charged situation.
‘I’m not sure if she was fully aware of that because I don’t think she tried her best to keep tabs on everything that we were going through and dealing with, but I do know that she knew Shirlene was very, very adamant about sharing her faith in the workplace.’
Williams said she believed she had booked her ‘dream job’ until ‘reality’ set in.
‘There’s a lot of things that go on behind-the-scenes, your ideas of things quickly start to shift,’ she said.
Asked if an apology would do or she felt justified moving forward with the lawsuit, Williams replied: ‘Everything that she stands for as an artist is a big reason as to why I think people stand behind her as much as they do.
‘To me, I just couldn’t sit with the fact that this was happening behind the scenes, and this is a big part of her fan base, but she’s kind of contradicting everything she stands for behind-the- scenes.’
In an interview with TMZ, Davis and Williams said they feared losing their jobs or falling out of favor for not doing what Lizzo wanted.
‘I think for both of us, there was this always looming feeling of thinking of, if we didn’t do so something or adhere to certain suggestions that your job could be in jeopardy,’ Williams said.
Dancers who were ‘super fun’ were treated with lavish trips, while those who didn’t follow along ultimately weren’t ‘booked for as many jobs,’ Davis said.
‘There was no line between professionalism and personal. So we had in our minds that if weren’t down for anything, we would then be ostracized later,’ Davis said. ‘It was this unspoken thing in the camp that if you weren’t super fun, if you skipped out on all the outings and all that stuff, that you wouldn’t be seen in good favor from Lizzo and then you would then not be considered one of the people who is cool and down and therefore not be booked for as many jobs.’
Lizzo has yet to respond to the claims made in the lawsuit.