Once again, disabled people face being portrayed inaccurately in a movie by an abled actor. Sia, an Australian singer-songwriter, is directing a movie titled Music, about a woman who must care for her nonverbal autistic half-sister with the help of their neighbor. The trailer was released on November 19th and was the target of a lot of backlash from autistic people.
The nonverbal, autistic titular character is portrayed by teenage dancer Maddie Ziegler, who is able-bodied and neurotypical. Sia claims she made this casting choice because casting an autistic actress would have been “cruel” and that using a neurotypical actress was “more compassionate”, implying that acting in the movie would have been too much stress for an autistic actress. Disability activists have called out the artist for doing this, as they explain that trying to take it upon herself in defining what autistic actors can and cannot do is not her place.
Laura Dorwart, a disability activist and writer, discussed on Twitter how this type of behavior, “faux-compassionate condescension,” is what drives employers towards not hiring disabled workers. This just perpetuates the cycle of disabled people not being seen as being capable to portray disabled characters, which leaves those roles to abled actors, who cannot accurately portray these roles having never experienced the characters’ disabilities.
This just perpetuates the cycle of disabled people not being seen as being capable to portray disabled characters, which leaves those roles to abled actors, who cannot accurately portray these roles having never experienced the characters’ disabilities.
Zeigler’s research was mainly limited to watching documentaries about autism and YouTube videos of autistic children having meltdowns recorded by their parents and uploaded without their consent to the website. Disability activists explain that this, is the issue at hand. Her beliefs, and in turn, her portrayal of autistic people are limited to videos she’s seen of autistic children at some of their most vulnerable moments.
Sia has also received criticism over her partnership with Autism Speaks, an organization that has been known for a very long time to cause harm to the autistic community. While she claims she’s done over three years worth of research for Music, she also claims she had no idea Autism Speaks was “so polarizing.” This is difficult to believe because when you type “Autism Speaks” into a Google search bar, the first thing it auto-fills to is “Autism Speaks backlash.” Furthermore, tweets from April 2020 also show that she was made aware of how harmful an organization Autism Speaks is, yet she still partnered with them.
Even though the National Center on Disability and Journalism recommends that journalists avoid euphemistic terms in reference to disabled people, news outlets reporting on the movie have referred to Music as “special needs” and “specially-abled.” This is most likely due to the prevalence of how Sia chooses to use those terms in her film. Sia has refused to use the term “disabled” in reference to Music, instead insisting on using euphemisms. Disability activists have stressed the harm in doing this, as using euphemisms implies that the word ‘disabled’ or the idea of disability is a bad and shameful thing when in reality, it isn’t at all.
Sia could’ve responded to the criticism by thanking disabled advocates, admitting she’s messed up, and agreeing to work with autistic people to make things right. But she didn’t. The artist stood by her claim, arguing that criticisms that autistic people have made before they’ve paid her money for a ticket and seen her movie, are invalid. She’s even gone so far as to attack some autistic people, calling one “pretty cruel and judgemental” and responding to another with “maybe you’re just a bad actor.” Sia’s argument that she’s creating this movie as a “love letter… to the autism community” falls apart more and more as she continues to attack and dismiss members of this community.
Time and time again, disabled people have to remind abled people that cripping up, or portraying a disabled character as an abled actor, is unacceptable, and that disability is not a costume. And yet, so rarely are disabled people ever listened to by the abled people making these movies. This is because projects about disability in the film industry led by able-bodied creatives are simply not intended for viewers that have disabilities. Instead, they are stories about disability catered for an able-bodied viewer. They tend to invoke feelings such as pity, warmth, and thankfulness, all based upon viewing another person’s life. These ableist narratives are all too common to see in the industry, and sadly, this was yet another one of those cases.
