Leslie Odom Jr film controversy

am I missing something or have you buried the lede and in doing so unfairly tarnished LOJ?

For a summation: https://ew.com/movies/sia-music-movie-autism-controversy/

(It's a mess, Sia's terrible, and I mostly feel bad for LOJ's twitter mentions right now. Stop replying all when you don't have to, people!)

Within the trashy pop music world Sia is Sondheim as a writer and Bernadette Peters as a singer. As far as I'm concerned, she is a genius. The 1 minute trailer looks incredible and I am glad that Sia has been able to showcase and tell the story of a character with autism on a major stage. This is rare, and although perhaps a missed opportunity RE: actor of choice still something to be celebrated in my opinion.

Unfortunately, Sia suffers openly from a myriad of emotional problems herself and you are unlikely going to get a PR filtered response. I would suggest if people have an issue with her or her movie just boycott it and move on.

Updated On: 11/21/20 at 01:31 PM

Yeah....when two grown adults are violently restraining/borderline abusing a child who is supposed to be autistic....I turned it off. This film shouldn't exist, no wondered it was shelved for years.

I suspect the movie will either be quickly forgotten or notoriously remembered in 'worst of all time' lists judging on the reception from critics & audiences. I still want to try and check it out to see if there are salvageable moments though - I am enjoying the soundtrack.

Updated On: 2/14/21 at 11:36 AM

MannPhan24601 said: "I'm so disgusted and will probably need to talk about this with my therapist. Leslie grew up in the Philly area and I've always admired him and was hoping to see him in concert at my favorite venue before the pandemic hithttps://metro.co.uk/2021/01/19/leslie-odom-jr-responds-music-backlash-supports-visionary-sia-13932106/"

I find his response as pretty tone deaf, particularly since he pretty much accuses the criticism being from people who haven't seen the film. Aside from criticism by some of the casting of Maddie Zeigler, actual criticism of the film itself has been made by people who have seen it, and I haven't heard anyone call it a good movie. And did he really compare Sia to David Bowie?

JBroadway said: "That was my thought at well. His response might have been semi-reasonable if the movie still hadn't come out. But now it has. If his ears are as open as he says, how has he not heard the criticisms of the actual movie itself? Feels like an evasive non-answer. But maybe it's unfair to expect anything different from an actor doing press for a project. I'm not sure how these things work, but is he under contract to promote the movie? If so, he might've been in breach of contract if he spoke out. Apart of me feels like the pressneeds to stop asking actors to respond to controversy around projects they're currently promoting - regardless of whether they're contractually obligated tosay nice things. It's just setting everybody up for pain and disappointment(I have mixed feelings about this, because I can see a validargument for the opposite too - it's complicated)."

His response is from an article released in mid-January. So most people, if any, hadn't seen the film yet.

Tag said: "His response is from an article released in mid-January. So most people, if any, hadn't seen the film yet."



Thanks for the correction!

Bettyboy72 said: "I think Leslie's responses are appropriate since the film wasn't released. He is saying that the project was made with good intentions and artists can't anticipate how it will land or be received. He is open to reactions and dialogue-good and bad once someone sees it."

Good intentiions are irrelevant. Can you imagine that as the excuse for using blackface? Plus he's being disingenuous. Industry folk were already setting the film, but most of the vocal criticism at the time was in response to the casting of Maddie Zeigler.

"Sia is a genius. He actually worked with her so he is entitled to compare her to another legend. He chose Bowie. Ask any artist who works with her and they are blown away by her process. If she is not your cup of tea, fine, but that doesn't make her any less extraordinary."

He's only entitled to compare her to other people he's worked with (in that respect). He's never worked with Bowie, so he had no point of comparison. And if she's a genius she wouldn't have made a universally panned movie (by both critics and audiences).

"I imagine the film was not designed to tell everyone's story. If it allows people, especially younger people, to develop more empathy and understanding for someone who operates differently, then great. If it is a total turkey, it will fade into obscurity. However, I am sure the film will become a favorite of many young people for varying reasons. We all have sentimental favorite films that were bombs. It looks creative and colorful."

Are you an investor in the movie? Not only is the film universally panned by both critics and audiences, it has been described as deeply offensive.

"As a gay man, I grew up on a steady diet of offensive film portrayals but was able to glean insights from them. They didn't destroy me or the gay movement. I took what I could and moved on. Gay men were never played by gay men, certainly not out gay men. I'm sure there will be strengths and criticisms of Maddie's portrayal."

Apples and oranges. There is no reason, in this day and age, for such an inflammatory portrayal of a condition or lifestyle, so Sia has no excuse. The idea that only gay characters should be played by gay individuals is ridiculous (and if that's what you are arguing, then you can't complain when gay actors are overlooked for straight characters). And I am not against able-bodied performers passing characters with disabilities. But Maddie is no actress. and the reviews have not been kind.

Well I found the film last night for free on 123Movies and it SUCKED. At the beginning, Ziegler's character actually could talk and was able to walk around town independently . It seemed like once Zu got custody of her, she started getting dumbed down. Also, LOJ's character was from Africa and had AIDS(Very stereotypical) . Besides the restraint scenes, there was also a scene on where LOJ's character's boxing student was killed by his father and had nothing really to do with the plot then it turned into this weird song with the grandmother who died at the beginning and what I assume was Music and Zu's mother being sung by Zu/Kate Hudson.

The scene that got me really confused was when Sia made a cameo herself(I thought she never shows her face in public anymore and she did here and at least one virtual interview about this film) . She claimed she was buying heavy illegal drugs from Zu to "send to Haiti". wtf was that about????



Also, Sia said in a interview back in 2015 when it was in development that she wrote the film for Maddie. She never had a autistic actor lined up. Freddy Highmore's performance on The Good Doctor is brilliant. Her casting a neurotypical didn't bother me. It was just on how she reacted on how autistic's "can't act" on twitter and clearly didn't consult with the community besides her one friend from rehab. Somebody on one of the fb groups I'm on said that Sia has the same autoimmune disease she has and that when fans go to her concerts asking for their canes and walkers to be signed at events , she refuses. The only thing I liked about the film was that 1+1 dream sequence . and there was also blackface as music was supposed to be "biracial".............