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Sia Under Fire

BY LEILANI CALIXTO

Sia Kate Isobelle Furler is an Australian singer, songwriter who recently took up directing movies. Music is a film directed and co-written with Sia. It was released February 10, 2021. When the trailer for this film was released, there was a lot of backlash to the decision of casting Maddie Ziegler, someone who is not on the spectrum, to play someone with autism. On IMDb, Music has 3.1 stars out of 10, a 9% on Rotten Tomatoes, and a 15% audience score.

“Sia should not have directed this movie.” -Divit Shah

However, this film was also nominated for two Golden Globes: for best motion picture, musical or comedy, and best actress in a musical or comedy, Kate Hudson. After the film got two Golden Globes nominations, Sia then apologized to the autism community.

According to USAToday, the autism community is very upset with this film, for both the casting of Ziegler in the role of an autistic character as well as for showing scenes where the character is being restrained. Many have said it’s unsettling and insincere.

Regarding Sia directing this movie, Sarah Johnston said (10), “I think it’s brave to broaden your horizons and try something new with your career.” Music (Maddie Ziegler) is a young autistic woman who falls under the care of her half-sister Zu (Kate Hudson) after her grandmother dies (Mary Kay Place). Zu learns all about Music’s daily routine with the help of Music’s neighbor Ebo (Leslie Odom Jr.) Divit Shaw (9) said, “Sia should not have directed this movie. She didn’t adapt to the need of an autistic actor.” Camille Proctor, executive director and founder of The Color of Autism Foundation, explained to USA TODAY. “I don’t like the portrayal of the young autistic woman. I feel like Ziegler was doing [a] parody.” Ziegler at the time of filming was fourteen years old and is said to not have wanted to continue filming, worried she was going to offend people. According to TIMES, Ziegler mentioned her research for the role included watching meltdown videos on YouTube. There were also scenes in which Music, the character, was put into prone restraint, a technique to subdue autistic people which has caused multiple deaths, with no warning of these scenes. Sia later apologized and said she’d remove scenes or add a warning. Sia has stated that she previously had an autistic actor playing Music but found it difficult to work with her so instead casted Ziegler. Ethan Richards (11) said, “I think it was extremely inappropriate to have her [Ziegler] play a girl on the spectrum”

With Ziegler playing this role Elise Chuquimia (12) said, “I feel that having 6

her play the part was definitely biased, however, she and Sia have always been close friends.”

Music has received many negative reviews in the short time it’s been out. This film didn’t win either Golden Globe catergory it was nominated for.