Music: Sia apologises for film and deletes Twitter account

Sia (pictured above) has addressed Music's backlash and deleted her Twitter account

Sia has apologised to the autistic community for her film Music and said she will be editing out certain scenes and adding a warning to the film.

It comes after the trailer, which was released back in December, received a lot of criticism for its portrayal of autism.

People have also been questioning why Sia decided to cast Maddie Ziegler - who doesn't have autism - as the main character, instead of an actor who does.

The film has recently been nominated for two Golden Globe awards and is set for release on 12 February.

Why have some people criticised the film?

Sia is calling the project a "cinematic experience," and it also stars well known actors like Kate Hudson and Leslie Odom Jr.

In the trailer Maddie's character Music is seen using a tablet to communicate.

Actress Bronagh Waugh wrote on social media: "Hi Sia, can I ask why you didn't cast a disabled actor for this part?"

"It's pretty offensive the way you've chosen to portray this character. People with disabilities are not broken and don't need fixing."

Jane Harris, from the National Autistic Society, told Newsround: "We know and have worked with many talented autistic actors and we think they should have had a chance to play the part of an autistic character."

One fan said: "Oh Sia.....you've broken the hearts of so many autistic people."

What has Sia's response been?

At first Sia defended her decision and seemed annoyed at the criticism: "Why don't you watch my film before you judge it?"

She said she did hire "special abilities kids" to work on the film, including one girl on the autistic spectrum, before casting Maddie, but said this actress found working on the film "unpleasant and stressful".

She tweeted that she had "two people on the spectrum" advising her on the film and that she had researched the film for three years.

However, following the recent Golden Globe nominations and the ongoing criticism, Sia tweeted: "I promise, I have been listening" and that she was "sorry".

One scene in the film shows Music's character being held down and restrained to calm her down. This has sparked a huge backlash as this can be very dangerous to autistic people.

Responding to these concerns, Sia tweeted: "The motion picture MUSIC will, moving forward, have this warning at the head of the movie. MUSIC in no way condones or recommends the use of restraint on autistic people. There are autistic occupational therapists that specialize in sensory processing who can be consulted to explain safe ways to provide proprioceptive, deep-pressure feedback to help meltdown safety."

"I plan to remove the restraint scenes from all future printings. I listened to the wrong people and that is my responsibility, my research was clearly not thorough enough, not wide enough."

The singer has now deleted her Twitter account.