Remember the 2021 film Music, directed, written, and produced by Sia, and starring Kate Hudson and Maddie Ziegler? It was a cinematic fiasco that received bad reviews from critics and those who made the decision to watch it. Well, Sia apparently heard everyone’s criticism of the movie, and all that negativity really did a number on her mental health. So much so that she was forced to check herself into rehab for treatment.
Music was about a drug dealer named Zu (Kate Hudson) who becomes the sole guardian to her nonverbal autistic half-sister named Music (Maddie Ziegler). The fact that the characters in this movie sound like they were named after unproduced sandal designs for Sketchers is a heinous enough crime. But that’s barely the issue here. A whole lot of the criticism against Music was being piled on Sia for casting Maddie Ziegler, a neurotypical person, as a character with autism (a portrayal that many found deeply offensive, ableist, or insensitive). Also, Sia took a lot of heat for not reaching out to the autism community for notes while making the movie.
Sia responded to the hate by suggesting people watch the movie before judging screenshots shared to Twitter, and that the haters should be grateful she cast neuroatypical people and trans actors in regular roles, and not “prostitutes and drug addicts.” Which was kind of a flippant answer to reasonable questions about how this movie got made. But still, Sia clearly wasn’t feeling as confident and empowered as her response would suggest. In reality, the via Variety:
Sia revealed to The New York Times as part of a profile on comedian Kathy Griffin that she entered rehab following the extreme outrage over her feature directorial debut, Music.
“I was suicidal and relapsed and went to rehab.” The musician credited Griffin for helping her recover after Griffin convinced her to go out to a Hollywood restaurant last fall. The dinner date was strategic, as Griffin knew the duo would be captured by paparazzi at the restaurant. The goal was to generate healthier media buzz months after the outrage. As Sia told The Times, “She saved my life.”
After The New York Times published their piece and Sia spoke about relapsing and rehab, Kathy Griffin jumped on Twitter and said that she and Sia are friends and that they have bonded over repeated attempts to be canceled.
Well, I just adore @Sia and thank her for her extremely honest and raw quote. I can’t tell you how often I call her up trying new material out and she calls me up and sings. Seriously.
We bond over attempts to “erase” us.https://t.co/7JfXgn10xF
— Kathy Griffin (@kathygriffin) January 20, 2022
It’s been over a year since Music was released and tons of negative attention hit Sia. So maybe it was just an initial bad press thing that eventually died down? Not really. Music currently holds a 7% rotten score on Rotten Tomatoes, with a 14% rotten audience score. That’s actually much worse than when the film was originally released. So Kathy should probably keep Sia away from Rotten Tomatoes for a while longer. Even the strongest person would need a mental health break after hearing everyone laugh at Music getting nominated for Best Picture, Musical, or Comedy at the 2021 Golden Globe Awards. There’s no question that hearing everybody hates your movie even more than they hate the Cats film adaptation is really a blow to one’s self-esteem.
Pic: Wenn.com