Tragic Details About Sia

In 2021, Sia was thrilled to finally release her passion project, "Music," a film about an autistic youth and her drug dealer sister, which she co-wrote and directed. Her joy was short-lived, as the film caused an outcry among disability activists. The trouble started when, per Billboard, she cast neurotypical teen dancer, Maggie Ziegler — the star of several of her music videos and her avatar during live performances — as the film's lead rather than an autistic actor. 

Amid accusations of being ableist and not consulting the disabled community regarding the film, Sia claimed on Twitter that she had attempted to cast a non-verbal autistic girl for the role but she had found the experience too stressful (via NME). A fierce social media battle ensued, in which Sia personally responded (sometimes harshly) to around 40 people on Twitter, as per Vulture. Sia also defensively tweeted (via Variety), "The movie is both a love letter to caregivers and to the autism community," and "My heart has always been in the right place." 

According to The Mighty, the autism community took issue with a scene in which the autistic character, Music, is forcibly restrained during a meltdown. A petition to rescind the movie's Golden Globe nominations followed. Sia took to Twitter again to issue an apology, vowing to remove all restraint scenes. "I listened to the wrong people, and that is my responsibility," she tweeted (via NME). "My research was clearly not thorough enough, not wide enough." She left the tweets up for one hour, then, per Yahoo!, she deactivated her Twitter account. Following the year of backlash, Sia experienced a relapse and went to rehab, as per The New York Times. She credits her friend, comedian Kathy Griffin, with saving her life.