Sia Kicks Off Her Movie's Promotional Cycle by Beefing With Autistic Critics on Twitter
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When “I did a thing” goes wrong! Sia, noted woman of wig and song, premiered the trailer for Music, her feature film directorial debut, on Thursday, but she didn’t exactly get the reception she hoped for.
The movie, out in February, follows a neurotypical woman, played by Kate Hudson, as she starts caring for her “low-functioning autistic teenager” sister, played by Maddie Ziegler, Entertainment Weekly reports. Its story was inspired by one of the musician’s irl friendships. “[My friend] found it too stressful being non-verbal,” Sia explained on Twitter. “I made this movie with nothing but love for him and his mother.”
Some Twitter users took issue with what they’ve been able to see of the film thus far, particularly Ziegler’s casting, as the Dance Moms star-turned-longtime Sia muse is not neurodivergent herself, and the fact that Sia did not consult with any autistic-led groups at any point in production.
In response, Sia defended Ziegler’s casting, explaining that she auditioned “a few actors on the spectrum” for the role but decided it would be “cruel” to insist on casting an autistic person. “I actually tried working with a beautiful young girl [who was] non-verbal [and] on the spectrum, and she found it unpleasant and stressful,” Sia added, as if autistic actors don’t act in films on a regular basis.
Failing to convince everyone that she had, in fact, done the right thing here, Sia lost her temper, telling one Twitter user who claimed to be an autistic actor who “could have acted in [Music] on short notice” that “maybe you’re just a bad actor.”
“Fuckity fuck why don’t you watch my film before you judge it?” she said.
Well, I have to hand it to Sia. Her promotional strategy (acting like an asshole) might be unorthodox, but I’m definitely aware of her movie now!
Heyyyyy, it’s a Zoom-related controversy that doesn’t involve sexual harassment in the workplace! On Friday, actor Lukas Gage—who you might recognize as Tyler from Euphoria, a.k.a., the guy who sleeps with Alexa Demie’s Maddy and then gets the shit kicked out of him by Jacob Elordi’s Nate—tweeted a recording of a recent remote audition where he caught the director mocking the Gage’s “tiny” apartment.
The exchange goes as follows:
UNSEEN DIRECTOR: These poor people live in these tiny apartments. Like, I’m looking at his, you know, background, and he’s got his TV and, and, you know—
LUKAS GAGE: I know, it’s a shitty apartment. That’s why [you should] give me this job so I can get a better one.
UNSEEN DIRECTOR: Oh, my god. I am so, so sorry, Lukas.
LUKAS GAGE: Just give me the job, and I’ll be fine!
TMZ has since confirmed that the actor was auditioning from a hotel room in Hawaii, where he’s currently shooting something on location, and not from his own home, but still! Shitty move, unknown British director who is apparently not Max Minghella.
- In other news, Deadpool 3 is happening. [IndieWire]
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- Erstwhile child star Ricky Schroder apparently donated $150,000 of his own money to get Kyle Rittenhouse, the white teenager who allegedly shot and killed two people protesting police brutality in Wisconsin this summer, out of jail. [TMZ]
- Do you know how much I hate using words like “allegedly” for legal reasons when something I know is true hasn’t been confirmed by a court of law? I’m just speaking in the general sense, of course. I’ve never referred to anything specifically in my life.