Sia apologises for her film’s portrayal of autism after receiving major backlash

Australian singer, songwriter Sia has been receiving quite a lot of backlash from the autism community towards her latest film, Music, which she directed.

The film follows Zu, played by Kate Hudson, a free spirit estranged from her family who is now a sober drug-dealer. Following the death of her grandmother, Zu finds herself the sole guardian of her teenaged, autistic half-sister, Music, played by neurotypical, able-bodied dancer, Maddie Ziegler.

Throughout the film, fantasy musical sequences take place inside the title character's mind, showing how she views the world.

While many people view the film and Sia’s directorial debut as a success; receiving two Golden Globe nominations, including Best Picture (comedy/musical), along with Kate Hudson being nominated for Best Actress; the film also received quite a lot of outrage from the autism community over casting choices and the use of restraints shown with Maddie’s character.

Publicly apologising on Twitter, Sia wrote, “I’m sorry,” adding, “I plan to remove the restraint scenes from all future printings. I listened to the wrong people and that is my responsibility, my research was clearly not thorough enough, not wide enough.”

Sia then confirmed that a restraint warning will be added to all screenings of the film, reading, “MUSIC in no way condones or recommends the use of restraint on autistic people. There are autistic occupational therapists that specialize in sensory processing who can be consulted to explain safe ways to provide proprioceptive, deep-pressure feedback to help with meltdown safety.”

Sia has since deleted her Twitter account entirely.

However, this is not the first time Sia has come under fire over the film’s casting choices, deciding to cast Maddie, a neurotypical, able-bodied girl as a non-verbal teen with autism, instead of an actual actress from the autism community.

At the time of the trailer release for the film back in November, Sia explained that she felt it was more compassionate to use a non-disabled actor. “I actually tried working with a beautiful young girl non verbal on the spectrum and she found it unpleasant and stressful. So that's why I cast Maddie,” she explained on Twitter.

Clearly disappointed by the level of backlash her film was receiving, Sia later reiterated, “Duh. I spent three f***ing years researching, I think that’s why I’m so f***ing bummed.”

British actress, Ruth Madeley who was born with spina bifida took to twitter earlier this week to express her frustration over Music’s Golden Globe nominations. “To every #ActuallyAutistic person who is rightly devastated to see #Sia"s 'Music' nominated for a Golden Globe, I am with you.”

“Disabled people are needed in the industry now more than ever to help change the narrative we're all so sick of. #endableism,” she wrote.

A change.org petition calling to ‘Cancel the film Music’ already has over 18K signatures.

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