Sia has revealed the backlash from her controversial movie Music felt her feeling "suicidal" and prompted a relapse that sent her back to rehab.
The Australian singer came under fire for her choice to cast Dance Moms star Maddie Ziegler, who is neurotypical, as a nonverbal autistic teenager called Music Gamble.
Speaking briefly to the New York Times as part of a profile on Kathy Griffin, Sia said of the outrage: "I was suicidal and released and went back to rehab."
The 'Chandelier' hitmaker maintained that Griffin helped her recover and convinced her to go out to a Hollywood restaurant last year in a bid to generate some positive media buzz.
"She saved my life," Sia said of Griffin.
In August, Griffin called Sia her "celebrity voice doctor" after the musician helped Griffin get her voice back following lung cancer surgery.
In late 2020, Sia maintained that she researched and worked closely with consultants who were on the spectrum while making Music, and that it was "more compassionate" to use Zeigler in the film; but critics remained unsatisfied with what they saw as "excuses".
Replying to an autistic actor who suggested that they and many other performers who were on the spectrum would have been available to act in the film on short notice, Sia responded: "Maybe you're just a bad actor".
"F**king bullshit," she added in a second reply to the same tweet, which asserted there was "zero effort was made to include anyone who is actually autistic".
In more tweets addressing the backlash, Sia insisted the story of the film was based on her "neuro atypical friend" who found acting in the film "too stressful", along with several other nonverbal actors trialled by Sia.
"I did try. It felt more compassionate to use Maddie. That was my call," she wrote.
Following two Golden Globe nominations for Music, an online petition was launched to rescind the nods amid accusations the film was "severely ableist" and "contributed to harmful stereotypes".
The petition went on to garner over 150,000 signatures.
Sia did apologise, and announced the film would be showing with a warning at the start that made it clear it did not condone the use of restraints on autistic people after people took issue with some scenes from the movie.
