This month, singer Sia will be releasing a movie titled Music, a story about an autistic teenager. The film has received a ton of backlash, and rightfully so. The movie portrays the life of two sisters, one of which is autistic. Instead of casting an autistic actress to play the role of the main character, Music, she casted Maddie Ziegler, a dancer she hires for many of her music videos. Maddie Zeigler is neurotypical, which means she is not autistic. As someone who is on the spectrum, I was absolutely appalled by this, but I did not want to give Sia and the other creators grief for what they have done and how they handled the backlash this film received. I wanted to take the time to educate others on why this is such a big deal for the autistic community, and why we need to see change immediately.
I was diagnosed with Pervasive Development Disorder when I was three years old, but I did not learn of my diagnosis until I was 12, and ever since, I made it my mission to hide every sign and symptom from those who were unaware of my condition. The portrayal of an autistic person in this film is exactly why. The way Maddie Ziegler portrays someone with autism is extremely insulting because all of her “quirks” are exaggerated and very inaccurate, which is not surprising considering the fact that she is not autistic. She acts in more of a feral manner than someone with a mental/behavioral health disorder.
Out of sheer curiosity, I watched the trailer for this movie and stumbled upon a comment that brought up another good point as to why this movie is more harmful than beneficial to its targeted autistic audience. This film features scenes with a lot of flashy colors and intense imagery, something many autistic people are sensitive to. Autistic people often have sensory processing issues (difficulties with organizing and responding to information taken in by the senses), so these intense images may cause them to react differently than neurotypical people and it could overwhelm them.
For so long, autistic people have had to watch characters with their condition be played by neurotypical people. From Dustin Hoffman in Rain Man, to now Maddie Ziegler in Music, roles that were meant for people like me have been given to neurotypical people. People on the spectrum continue to be pushed out of the entertainment industry, and this is just one example. Although progress has been made and disabled actors are starting to get roles that have their same disabilities, such as deaf actress Millicent Simmonds in A Quiet Place, there is still a lot of work that needs to be done, and Music is a perfect example. As a matter of fact, people on the spectrum are often great actors because they have been acting their whole lives, trying to fit into society’s definition of “normal”. This is also a perfect example of why representation matters because when we see people with similar skin color, culture, or disability portrayed in a positive manner in media, it tells us we are beautiful people worth celebrating. So please, if you are going to make a movie featuring anyone with a disability, make sure you do your research and hire the appropriate actors to play the role of the disabled character.