Maddie Ziegler defends playing autistic teenager in Music amid backlash - The Number One magazine feat. news, reviews, movie trailers, cinema, DVDs, interviews + film & movie gossip UK & worldwide.
Not âMusicâ to My Ears
On February 3, Australian pop star Sia finally apologized for her controversial choice to cast a neurotypical actor as a nonverbal Autistic girl in her directorial debut film, âMusicâ (out February 10).
The movie follows drug dealer Zu (Kate Hudson), who receives the news that she is to become the sole guardian of her Autistic half-sister Music (Maddie Ziegler). Through her experience of caring for Music, who is non-verbal and has sensory processing difficulties, Zu becomes motivated to get her life back on track by getting sober and opening herself up emotionally to those around her.
For the Autism community, the synopsis landed with a thud, and Iâm not surprised. Casting neurotypical Ziegler in an Autistic role, as well as depicting the use of restraints to calm her down, is problematic. And indeed, when the backlash first began, Sia doubled down and defended her choices, at times even lashing out at her critics.