Australian recording artist Sia has apologized for the depiction of autism in her directorial feature debut “Music”.
The apology comes just hours after the movie, which was met with a poor reaction from critics (29% on Rotten Tomatoes), surprised many by scoring two Golden Globe nominations for best musical or comedy and a best actress nomination for Kate Hudson.
The film cast neurotypical actress and Sia’s frequent collaborator Maddie Ziegler as a nonverbal autistic teenage girl named Music who endlessly listens to music on her headphones.
Hudson plays her half-sister, a free-spirited and newly sober drug dealer who finds herself the sole guardian of Music. Leslie Odom Jr. also stars as their friend and neighbour.
Backlash emerged late last year over Sia’s decision to cast Ziegler as opposed to a performer actually on the autism spectrum to which Sia responded in a way that triggered a social media backlash.
More recently controversy has erupted over scenes in the film depicting the use of potentially dangerous restraints on the Music character.
Following its Globes nominations, Sia tweeted an apology and promised to remove restraint scenes from the film. She also adds that the film will be updated with a warning, and then deleted her Twitter account.
Along with directing, Sia wrote and performed ten original songs for the movie’s accompanying album.
Source: The Guardian
