Sia lashes out at dozens of people after being called out for ableism

[Snow 17,194]

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Sia has been accused of ableism for casting Maddie Ziegler as a teenager with non-verbal autism in her feature film debut.

The Chandelier singer has directed and co-written the upcoming film Music, starring Kate Hudson, Leslie Odom Jr and dancer and frequent collaborator Ziegler, with the trailer for the film dropping this week. However, there has already been backlash to the trailer due to the casting of 18-year-old Ziegler – who is not on the autism spectrum – as a teenager, Music, who has non-verbal autism.

Sia, 44, has also been called out for her responses to some of her critics, including suggesting that an actor with autism who was not asked to audition may have been a ‘bad actor’. The Australian singer has insisted that Music is ‘both a love letter to caregivers and to the autism community. I have my own unique view of the community,  and felt it is underrepresented and compelled to make it. If that makes me a s*** I’m a s***, but my intentions are awesome.’

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[Snow 17,194]

More tweets:

Spoiler

 

 

[Billie Frank 12,366]

I've not seen the movie so i can't comment on the portrayal but I dont really see the issue with a neurotypical actor playing the part of an autistic person so long as the portrayal is relatively accurate and not a mockery. 

 

This just seems to be people wanting to cancel someone again... 

[Princess Aurora 23,452]

Does Sia have a movie ?  

[Venom 7,556]

I don't see the issue with this casting; HOWEVER Sia's obsession with Maddie Ziegler is incredibly strange and she needs to get over it

[Entea 32,473]

Why not shine an accurate and genuine light on the character and disability by choosing an actor with the same origin? Makes far more sense. This goes beyond autism, it's found in every spectrum of the movie industry which is sad tbh

[Chris Morlock 48,399]

Poor sia

[fab 16,972]

omg I feel really sorry for Sia, this is clearly a very important project for her and now it got all this negative attention 

like plsss 99% of the people who are "cancelling" her over this don't even have a single friend with autism 

[fab 16,972]

also she's not "lashing out" lmao, she's just addressing the criticism  

[Miss Show Business 1,185]

5 hours ago, Billie Frank said:

I've not seen the movie so i can't comment on the portrayal but I dont really see the issue with a neurotypical actor playing the part of an autistic person so long as the portrayal is relatively accurate and not a mockery. 

 

This just seems to be people wanting to cancel someone again... 

Mte. 

I mean, what more do people want? She sounds like she did her research and genuinely tried to work with an autistic girl to play the part. Understandably, that could be a stressful situation for someone who's non-verbal. Twitter is just doing the most again, imo.

[Snow 17,194]

1 hour ago, fab said:

also she's not "lashing out" lmao, she's just addressing the criticism  

Fair enough  

I actually take more of a middle route on the casting issue, however I do feel that she could've addressed the criticism better. Responding to an autistic actor who is speaking on the issue by calling them a "bad actor" while emphasizing how she's doing this movie in "good faith" is not only hypocritical, it's cruel. She can't claim to be elevating a community and shut down someone who is a part of that community when they speak on the issue at the same time. Not to mention her seemingly wanting a pat on the back for not casting autistic people as "fucking prostitutes".

So I agree with some of her points (to an extent), and I'm sure Sia is a lovely person whose heart on the issue is indeed in the right place, but a lot of her responses come off as incredibly tone deaf, especially for someone claiming they've done "three fucking years of research". 

Could this all just mostly be Twitter being Twitter? Absolutely. But also I can understand why some people are genuinely angry about it. 

[Wonho 11,855]

Where was this outrage for Wonder, the film about a boy with Treacher Collins syndrome, though?

I do think Sia is frustrated and she's going at this very wrongly 

[Billie Frank 12,366]

4 hours ago, Miss Show Business said:

Mte. 

I mean, what more do people want? She sounds like she did her research and genuinely tried to work with an autistic girl to play the part. Understandably, that could be a stressful situation for someone who's non-verbal. Twitter is just doing the most again, imo.

Agree, I'm on the autistic spectrum so I'm speaking from that perspective and although I don't speak for everyone it really doesn't bother me. Its the same with straights playing gay characters, I really don't have any problem with it so long as its not mocking. 

[Wonho 11,855]

1 hour ago, Billie Frank said:

Agree, I'm on the autistic spectrum so I'm speaking from that perspective and although I don't speak for everyone it really doesn't bother me. Its the same with straights playing gay characters, I really don't have any problem with it so long as its not mocking. 

I just watched the trailer for Siamese's movie, and it's actually borderline mocking and overexaggerated; so I would say she deserved the backlash, but not from the "this needs to play this" perspective, more from the "misrepresentation" perspective.

 

This is definitely not signs of autism, especially not at that age... 

 

[Billie Frank 12,366]

2 minutes ago, Cha Eunwoo said:

I just watched the trailer for Siamese's movie, and it's actually borderline mocking and overexaggerated; so I would say she deserved the backlash, but not from the "this needs to play this" perspective, more from the "misrepresentation" perspective.

 

This is definitely not signs of autism, especially not at that age... 

 

 I can see why there was backlash. I was just saying I dont see the issue with a neurotypical person playing an autistic person specifically as that seemed to be what people were ranting about rather than the actual portrayal. 

[StanLeeMusique 244]

Twitter stays being messy 

Sia should’ve known better than to pay any attention to the people on there since they’re always trolling or complaining about anything and everything. I mean they didn’t even bother to keep the criticism to themselves and actually wait until she released the damn movie 

With that said, Sia might’ve had good intentions for the movie but this Twitter mess and the fact that it took 3+ years to release the movie shows that she should’ve just canceled this project 

[Mr. Mendes 6,312]

the backlash would have faded quickly had she not engaged....MULTIPLE times. and...girl come on, who cares if they're raging? was it really gonna hurt the movie that significantly? no. and nobody was falling over themselves to see it anyway...engaging and bringing more attention to the controversy just made such an avoidable mess. 

[LuranusLur 4,425]

I think it should be to see the movie first but not to be mean on Twitter autism is for many different people 

[Wonho 11,855]

Activists ask Sia to cancel the movie due to inaccurate stereotypes:

 

https://variety.com/2020/film/news/sia-music-movie-autism-activists-1234839639/