Sia‘s directorial debut Music is out now, and it’s copping an absolute savaging from every angle, with autism advocacy groups criticising her for failing to cast an autistic actor in the lead role, and movie critics just generally laying into it for not being very good. The film’s star Kate Hudson is currently on the publicity circuit to talk about the film, and as you can probably imagine, that’s going really well.
in Music, Hudson plays a newly-sober drug dealer named Zu, who is thrust into the role of guardian for her autistic, non-verbal sister Music (Maddie Ziegler). The reviews have really not been kind. “Sia asked autistic critics to watch her movie before judging it,” said writer Sara Luterman. “So I did. And it sucks.”
Against the backdrop of all this, Kate Hudson appeared on a recent episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live, and addressed the reaction to the film. She said that the backlash to Music is an “important dialogue”, but insisted that it still gets its intended message across, saying: “I think when people see the film, they will see the amount of love and sensitivity that was put into it.”
Addressing the casting of Ziegler, Kate Hudson said:
“The spectrum is so wide and should be approached with far more conversation and understanding of how can we be more representative, what are the best ways to do that. We want to tell the best stories we can. There is no one who wants to upset anybody. When people feel upset about anything, it’s our job to listen and encourage more conversation with other people who want to tell these stories.”
You can see the interview below:
