Sia’s self-made film simply titled, “Music”, has been under well-deserved criticism for its cartoonish and harmful representation of Autism, which has undoubtedly caused damage of monumental proportions.
In the movie, Maddie Ziegler portrays a young Autistic girl, even though Ziegler is not Autistic herself. While this is not necessarily improper, as many neurotypical actors and actresses have played these roles before, Sia could have done wonders for representation by allowing an Autistic person to take the role.
However, Sia furthered her horrific response to backlash from the film when asked why she did not cast an Autistic person. She tweeted, “I actually tried working with a beautiful young girl non-verbal on the spectrum and she found it unpleasant and stressful. So that’s why I cast Maddie”- an incredibly ignorant response to very justified criticism.
Ziegler is, again, neurotypical, so she had to be taught and coached as to how to approach an Autistic character and play one on screen. This led to a character that not only looks incredibly choreographed but also a caricature representation of Autistic mannerisms that is incredibly incorrect.
There is also an incredible lack of proper education or understanding of the community Sia is attempting to represent. In the movie, many times, Ziegler is in the middle of elaborate dance numbers of which feature strobing lights- a well-known cause for overstimulation in some Autistic people. There are also hard-to-swallow scenes of the movie in which Ziegler is physically restrained and held down by family- which is quite possibly the worst possible thing that you can do to help an Autistic person struggling with overstimulation.
This clear miss is reflected in the numbers, but apparently not to film academies. The film scored a 3 out of 10 on IMDb and a staggering 8% on Rotten Tomatoes, but it also was nominated for a Golden Globe Award. The academy is incredibly wrong for this nomination as a whole and demonstrates that the general public needs to be more deeply informed on what a proper, healthy representation of Autism on-screen looks like.