Sia Responds to Backlash for Casting Maddie Ziegler as an Autistic Character in Her New Movie

Sia officially took her first big swing as a movie director, and it didn’t go well. 

That’s an understatement. The pop artist is facing severe backlash for her new film, Music, starring Maddie Ziegler—the popular young dancer you might recognize from Dance Moms as well as the iconic music video for Sia’s “Chandelier.” 

Per People, Music follows Zu (Kate Hudson), a drug dealer who’s forced to take in her sister, Music (Ziegler), a “special-needs teen” who uses a communication device to speak and “sees music differently.” Sia directed and co-wrote the film, which debuted in February 2021. Reviews were horrible.

Here’s a breakdown of the controversy:

Sia debuted the movie trailer on November 19, 2020.  

“The news you’ve been waiting for,” the artist proclaimed on Twitter. “Music, the movie written & directed by Sia + starring Kate Hudson, @LeslieOdomJr & @MaddieZiegler, will be arriving in early 2021! Watch a sneak peek of the movie here.”

The reactions immediately came pouring in.

Within a day Sia began trending on Twitter for casting Ziegler (who doesn’t have autism) to play an autistic character. The hashtag #ActuallyAutistic was also trending by November 20, 2020. 

Even the National Autistic Society spoke out against the film, tweeting, “@Sia has got this one wrong. There are so many talented autistic actors out there—like Saskia, Alex Max, and Holly who starred in our #AutismTMI films.”

Another point of backlash was the film’s connection to Autism Speaks, a controversial organization that many in the autism community and beyond have described as a “hate group” more focused on ending autism than spreading constructive autism awareness.

However, Sia claims that Autism Speaks “came on board” years after the film was already finished.

She also states in a tweet from November 20, 2020, that she “had no idea it was such a polarizing group.” However, that slightly contradicts another tweet that claims she spent “three fucking years researching” autism for the film. Which brings us to the next section…

Sia’s response to the backlash

It hasn’t been pretty. A series of responses disappointed Twitter users; she essentially asked them to see the movie before judging, told them the film was based on her “close friend,” that she felt casting Ziegler was “more compassionate,” and that she had “two people on the spectrum” advising her the entire time. 

Then her tone started to take a turn. “I cast thirteen neuroatypical people, three trans folk, and not as fucking prostitutes or drug addicts but as doctors, nurses and singers,” she tweeted at one user. “Fucking sad nobody’s even seen the dang movie. My heart has always been in the right place.”

“Grrrrrrrrrr,” she wrote early morning on November 20, 2020. “Fuckity fuck why don’t you watch my film before you judge it? FURY.”

When one user asked Sia to clarify what she meant by it being “more compassionate” to cast Ziegler, she replied, “She found it extremely stressful and overwhelming.” It’s unclear who Sia is referring to. 

The backlash to Sia’s response

I’ll just leave these here. 

Sia addresses the controversy again in January 2021. 

During an interview on the Australian talk show The Project, Sia said of her decision to cast Ziegler: “I realized it wasn’t ableism—I mean, it is ableism, I guess, as well—but it’s actually nepotism, because I can’t do a project without her. I don’t want to.”

Sia also opened up about Ziegler’s concerns during filming. “She just said, ‘I don’t want anyone to think I’m making fun of them,’” the singer-producer explained. “And I bald-facedly said, ‘I won’t let that happen.’”

She continued, “I realized I couldn’t really protect her from that, which I thought I could.” 

The movie came out in February 2021 and…reviews are bad.

Sara Luterman, who’s autistic and reviewed the movie for Slate, wrote, “I was expecting to be offended. Instead, I felt intense secondhand embarrassment, because Music is 107 minutes of unadulterated, unintentional cringe.”

Matthew Rosza, who’s also autistic and reviewed the movie for Salon, called it, “[Not] just offensive; it’s patronizing…the central role is played in a way that had already been recognized as embarrassingly out of touch more than a decade ago. It’s inexcusable.” He also said it’s “just plain boring.”

In Variety, Chris Willman wrote, “Taken from moment to moment, with some enjoyable ones along the way, Music is not the complete disaster its four-year stint in the can would suggest.” But he echoes the core issue most critics seem to be pinpointing in their reviews: “[The movie] turns out not to have any idea what do with its autistic character.”

Leslie Felperin puts it most brutally, via The Hollywood Reporter: “Music is a sentimental atrocity so cringe-inducing it should come with an advisory warning for anyone with preexisting shoulder or back injuries.”

The movie currently has a 15% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

Kate Hudson has finally addressed the controversy.

Hudson, who was nominated for a Golden Globe for her role in Music, has finally addressed the backlash. However, she only spoke about the topic of representation. She didn’t touch on the problematic restraint scenes or Sia’s remarks.

“I think when people see the film, that they will see the amount of love and sensitivity that was put into it,” Hudson told Jimmy Kimmel during a segment on February 19. “But it is an important conversation to have—not just about this movie, but as a whole—about representation. For me, when I hear that there's anybody that feels left out I feel terrible.

“I’ve only been asked to comment on it in a quote,” she continued. “But it’s not a sound-bite conversation. It’s an ongoing and important dialogue to be had, about neurotypical actors portraying neurodivergent characters. It is an important one to have with people who are experts and really know how to engage in the conversation. I encourage it, truly…Just to say—we are listening.”

However, she doesn»t think she’s the person to “speak to it,” adding, “It should be a continuous conversation.

“The spectrum is so wide and should be approached with far more conversation, understanding,” she said. “We're storytellers. We want to tell the best stories we can. There’s no part of anybody wants to upset anybody. We really want to tell the best stories. And when there are people who feel upset about anything, it’s our job to listen and encourage more conversation with other people who want to tell these stories. Because they’re important stories to be told and we don’t want to stop telling them.”

Originally Appeared on Glamour