Sia’s ‘MUSIC’ Movie Is Being Threatened With Cancellation!

Sia’s MUSIC movie is being threatened with cancellation

Sia has a fairly controversial past and has often had to publicly apologise for her mistakes, but nobody seems to be letting go of her latest whoopsie, including her own fans.

MUSIC is a new musical / drama movie written and directed by pop star Sia. The movie also has a soundtrack of songs performed by the star. The movie’s plot is about a newly sober woman who learns that she is to become the sole guardian of her half - sister named Music, who is a young girl on the autism spectrum.

The part which is controversial to the public is that Sia casted her long time friend and frequent collaborator, Maddie Ziegler, to play the role of “Music,” who has autism. People are saying that this is disrespectful to the autism community because Maddie is neurotypical and does not actually have the disorder. From viewing the trailer for the movie, you can see Ziegler acting as if she is non verbal amongst having other autism symptoms, which many are seeing as making a mockery of people who actually do have these symptoms and have to live with them daily. The character also has numerous meltdowns in the movie and is physically restrained, which has upset many people.

Despite the movie receiving golden globe nominations, it is still making headlines for it’s controversy. The rating of the movie has fallen down to an extremely poor 3.1 out of 10 rating on IMDB. It also has only 11% on Rotten Tomatoes and 24% on Metacritic.

Sia did issue an apology via Twitter, saying “I’m sorry. 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.” She then states that the movie will now be edited to have the following warning. “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 w [sic] meltdown safety.”

Sia has not always taken the controversy so gracefully, though. A series of other tweets show her anger and frustrations. An autistic actor tweeted Sia saying “Several autistic actors, myself included, responded to these tweets. We all said we could have acted in it (the movie) on short notice. These excuses are just that - excuses. The fact of the matter is zero effort was made to include anyone who is actually autistic. #nothingaboutuswithoutus.” To which Sia replied, “Maybe you’re just a bad actor” followed by “Grrrrrrr. Fuckity fuck why don’t you watch my film before you even judge it? FURY.”

There is now a petition on change.org asking for 35,000 signatures to go towards a battle of getting the movie cancelled.

Hannah Marshall, the creator of this petition, wrote “Musical artist Sia is planning on releasing a film next year titled “Music.” One of the characters in this film, the titular character Music, is autistic. However, she is played by neurotypical actress Maddie Ziegler. In addition, no autistic individuals were consulted on the film. Stereotypes are used throughout the trailer, and the visuals are nauseating to autistic people who would’ve wanted to see the film.
As an autistic individual, I am asking that this film is canceled. It is extremely offensive to myself and other autistic individuals. Sia has shown no remorse for her inaccurate and hurtful betrayal of the community.
This film will not have a major impact on history. Canceling it will express that intolerance to neurodivergence is unacceptable in today’s society. Sia and her associates have additional avenues for funds; they will survive even if no money is made from this film.”

As of the 19th of February, 26,000 people have signed the petition.