Maddie Ziegler Defends Playing Character With Autism In Sia Movie

Maddie Ziegler has defended her role as an autistic teenager in Sia’s Music movie. 

The movie attracted immediate controversy for its casting of Ziegler when the first trailer dropped last year, with many people accusing Sia of being ‘ableist’ by not casting an autistic person in the role.

Music follows a ‘newly sober woman (Kate Hudson) figuring out her place in the world when she learns she is to become the sole guardian of her half-sister, Music (Maddie Ziegler), a young girl on the autism spectrum’.

The criticism has only increased with the film’s limited release, especially as it earned Golden Globe nominations. Ziegler and Sia are frequent collaborators, with the teen even describing her as ‘family’. Sia earlier said, ‘I can’t do a project without her. I don’t want to. I wouldn’t make art if it didn’t include her.’

However, she said, ‘I understand why people would want someone who’s actually on the spectrum with autism to play this character. But in terms of the dance sequences, I think that’s why Sia chose me to bring the dream world to life. It was all [made] with good intentions and with a good heart.’

Ziegler added, ‘I felt so much responsibility. But I felt I was capable. I knew going into this that people were going to love or hate it.’

Sia, who consulted with Autism Speaks – an organisation criticised for exploitive practices and ableist views – on the movie, originally tried to defend Ziegler’s role.

She earlier tweeted, ‘I cast thirteen neuroatypical people, three trans folk, and not as f*cking prostitutes or drug addicts but as doctors, nurses and singers. F*cking sad nobody’s even seen the dang movie. My heart has always been in the right place.’

However, shortly before deleting her Twitter, the singer appeared to concede, writing, ‘I promise, have been listening. The motion picture MUSIC will, moving forward, have this warning at the head of the movie.’

In a thread, she continued, ‘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 meltdown safety.’

Sia added, ‘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, not wide enough… I’m sorry.’