Poll of the Day > Outrage after a Former Child DANCER is cast in AUTISM Movie Role!! Is She Hot???

(+) Yeah! (+)

Aussie Singer Sia is hitting back at people after coming under fire for failing to cast an autistic actress in her debut movie "Music" about a girl with the condition

She instead cast friend and former child dancer of Dance Moms, 18 y/o Maddie Ziegler in the role whom she worked with in the past

When the trailer was released, people branded it offensive and disappointing seeing Maddie there who does not have the condition

In a stream of emotional messages, she responded that she did 3 years of extensive rsearch and decided it would be "cruel to cast somebody with Magic's level of functioning"

The movie tells the story of an autistic teen who ends up in the care of her drug dealer half sister, Zu played by Kate Hudson

It was supposed to be showcase Sia's music which is integral to the story of the film

The CDC states people with autism have trouble with social, emotional and communication skills that usually develop before the age of 3

Sia eventually lost it from the backlash and said "I cast 13 neuroatypical people, 3 trans folk and not as f***ing prostitutes or drug addicts but as doctors, nurses and singers. F***ing sad nobody's even seen the dang movie. My heart has always been in the right place"

When asked if she did any research at all she said "Duh, i spent 3 f***ing years researching. I think that's why i'm so f***ing bummed".

Some people with the condition defended her however and said they were not offended

Is Maddie Hot?

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lol it's almost like people don't understand acting

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Isn't it stupid that they didn't hire REAL royalty for Princess Diaries?

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Dude, you're toeing the line with this one. I'm dead positive some of those pictures are from when she was still a child.

All that being said, as someone on the autism spectrum, I don't really mind non-neurodivergent people being given neurodivergent roles. Like, if they're a good actor and they have empathy for what they're portraying instead of trying to caricaturize or mock it, then I don't see a problem. Sure, I think it would be cool to see more autistic people cast in autistic roles as well, but this whole thing almost seems like a manufactured issue to give Sia's new movie some hype.

Theres no problem here. It sounds like Twitter getting mad because its Twitter...
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JigsawTDC posted...

Dude, you're toeing the line with this one. I'm dead positive some of those pictures are from when she was still a child.

Have you ever seen a duckbear topic before?

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she looks like a cross between Olivia Wilde and Fiona Apple.

also, can you believe the nerve of George Lucas to not cast actual Jedi as Jedi in Star Wars?

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I hate how they are like "iT nEeDs To Be A pErSoN tHaT's tHe SaMe" when it fits one box, but "you need to change the character to be something else" when it fits another.

I did have to laugh at all the fucking dumbasses losing it over Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman because she wasn't fat or ugly enough, then presumably the same bunch losing it over her playing Cleopatra and demanding a black woman play the role... despite the fact Cleopatra was ethnically Greek. By their own logic, Queen Victoria should be played by a black woman because she was the head of state for half of Africa at one point. When will these lunatics go the fuck away?

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Imagine my outrage when Christian Bale wasn't actually a bat.

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VioletMassacre posted...

Thinking someone with autism would even be able to go acting doesn't really understand autism. I mean, it's not impossible, but it wouldn't really be worth it for anybody.

Also, this:

theres plenty of autistic actors. fuck off


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VioletMassacre posted...

Thinking someone with autism would even be able to go acting doesn't really understand autism. I mean, it's not impossible, but it wouldn't really be worth it for anybody.

For the record? This attitude, which Sia herself expressed, saying that autistic actors weren't as capable as the actress she chose, is precisely why people are upset. THIS keeps autistic actors from getting steady and well-paying work, which is why people generally advocate for people who belong to stigmatized/marginalized groups to get to play roles that relate to their own conditions- it's not because people who don't have that given trait can't do it. It's that casting people who don't have those conditions all the time because you're working under the assumption that the stigmatized people are somehow inherently less capable makes it harder for the stigmatized people to make a living.

OniRonin posted...

theres plenty of autistic actors. fuck off

Also, this. Your argument has already been disproven before it was made. You're putting forth the idea that autistic actors are less capable than neurotypical actors... even when the role depicts their neurodivergence. It's completely absurd.

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Dustin Hoffman isnt autistic either, he did a fine job in Rain Man.

This isnt the same as casting, say, a white person to play someone of a different ethnicity. You can actually get away with faking the condition if youre a good enough actor. Thats not to say autistic people cant act themselves (Anthony Hopkins, Dan Akroid, Jerry Seinfeld, etc.) and what Violet said was dead wrong, but I dont think its that big of a deal to higher someone who doesnt have it.

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SeahorseCpt89 posted...

You can actually get away with faking the condition if youre a good enough actor.

i probably agree in theory, but i watched the trailer and i think her portrayal of autism fucking sucks. it feels like the actress just watched a bunch of fathering autism youtube videos and is parodying her

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RDJ wasn't an actual iron man, but people didn't get offended when he was cast as one, ok?

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Gaawa_chan posted...

This attitude, which Sia herself expressed, saying that autistic actors weren't as capable as the actress she chose, is precisely why people are upset.

Sia did say something about Magic's Level of functioning. Personally, I don't know anything about this person, but I have heard about the spectrum. Where is Magic on the spectrum?

Plus, she did say herself that she some actors who are on the spectrum, IIRC...
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LinkPizza posted...

Plus, she did say herself that she some actors who are on the spectrum, IIRC...

I think this tweet is what Gaawa is referring to



the implication that she must be a bad actor because she's concerned abotu it is pretty fucking rude

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OniRonin posted...

the implication that she must be a bad actor because she's concerned abotu it is pretty fucking rude

While she didn't say it the nicest, it sounds like she's saying that it's possible they were chosen because they were bad actors. But it doesn't sound like she's saying they're bad actors because they're autistic. In the end, even good actors don't get every part. There are only so many roles in any given movie. Nor do I know literally everybody she cast in it. For all we know, she did hire other people who have autism.
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My girlfriend does actually follow Dance Moms (I don't particularly understand why, since it's generally just people being obnoxious for cameras, but we've all got our guilty pleasures), including some of the behind-the-scenes drama, and by the sounds of things, Sia's got kind of an unhealthy obsession with Maddie, to the point of a whole lot of people being concerned about grooming. I have absolutely no difficulty believing that she made this casting decision not because she actually feels that Maddie portrays autism or the character better than any actual autistic actresses could have, but because she wanted to give a big movie role to her favourite little girl. Being so defensive about it and lashing out like she is is kind of just reinforcing that belief for me.

More broadly, I don't have a fundamental problem with using non-autistic actors to portray austistic characters, provided they do it well (Benedict Cumberbatch as Alan Turing, for example, was amazing), but the attitude of "autistic people can't handle this role" is generally pretty awful and people should try to avoid letting it influence their casting decisions as much as possible.

Also, the fact that I'm mostly aware of Maddie as like a 12-year-old makes the "is she hot?" thing reeeeeally creepy, even by usual Duckbear standards. Especially when I'm pretty sure a couple of those pictures are actually from her early teen years. Not okay, dude.

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VioletMassacre posted...

Thinking someone with autism would even be able to go acting doesn't really understand autism. I mean, it's not impossible, but it wouldn't really be worth it for anybody

What? You do know there are levels to autism? They aren't fucking incapable of thought.

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EvilMegas posted...

What? You do know there are levels to autism? They aren't fucking incapable of thought.

We have to take the milk upstairs before we're capable of thought, though.

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VioletMassacre posted...

Im autistic myself so I know what Im talking about.

Seems like you don't though based on this:

Thinking someone with autism would even be able to go acting doesn't really understand autism. I mean, it's not impossible, but it wouldn't really be worth it for anybody.

Like any mental disorder some have it very mild while others have it really bad. Some folk with autism can certainly act. Anthony Hopkins comes to mind. He has high-functioning Aspergers Syndrome so is on the Autism spectrum.

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Having Autism would absolutely fuck with being an actor. This is a common sense move.
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Given the current call to have more diversity in film, it certainly fits within the modern zeitgeist. And on a technical level, there are pragmatic reasons for casting a person with a disorder rather than an actor merely feigning the disorder. Even with something like a physical disability, there are going to be nuances that actors miss. With mental issues, it's that much harder to give an accurate portrayal.

That said, the question then becomes to what extent does an accurate portrayal matter? For the representation of certain groups, the answer might actually mean a lot, since popular culture is usually peoples' first reference point. As such, it's kinda important to get it right. However, given that not everybody is going to embody a disability in the same way, it kinda seems like you can run into problems no matter which way you go.

Regardless, if Hollywood is making a big deal of representation mattering, it kinda feels like this is an area that should concern them as well.

adjl posted...

More broadly, I don't have a fundamental problem with using non-[a-word] actors to portray [a-word] characters, provided they do it well (Benedict Cumberbatch as Alan Turing, for example, was amazing),

His Sherlock as well, tbh. Although some people dispute the show's in-universe acknowledgement:

https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/the-british-journal-of-psychiatry/article/sherlock-holmes-
the-case-of-the-man-with-the-mistaken-diagnosis-psychiatry-in-literature/2E9E5AD5706BFE14CE3444BF2F7A7AC8/core-reader

Although apparently the original Conan Doyle character has been thought to be [a-word], which I didn't really pick up from those stories:

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/brainsnacks/201110/did-sherlock-holmes-have-asperger-syndrome

adjl posted...

the attitude of "[a-word] people can't handle this role" is generally pretty awful and people should try to avoid letting it influence their casting decisions as much as possible.

Not for nothing, but there are a lot of mental conditions where the non-condition actors playing them are offensively bad. Jack Nicholson in As Good as it Gets and Tony Shalhoub in Monk had me cringing with their terrible portrayals of OCD. And that's not touching on the inherently problematic nature of using a mental condition for cheap laughs.

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