Cameron Crowe’s upcoming romcom, Aloha, was scheduled for a Christmas 2014 release. Sony didn’t feel confident enough and held the movie for a May 29 release. The cast is filled with prominent white actors, including “odd bird” Bradley Cooper, Rachel McAdams, Emma Stone, Bill Murray, and Danny McBride. Page Six has a new story about how the film is already a disaster. Amy Pascal called the movie “ridiculous” because “it never, not even once, ever works.” Sony has placed an embargo on film reviews and cast interviews until the night before Aloha hits theaters.
More trouble is brewing. An Asian-American group has criticized Cameron Crowe for “whitewashing” his cast in manner of Ridley Scott’s Exodus. The group accuses Crowe of hiring white actors for their recognizable faces rather than casting realistically for Hawaii’s demographic:
An Asian-American group is blasting Jerry Maguire director Cameron Crowe for having “whitewashed” Asian-Pacific Islanders out of his new film set in Hawaii.
A blistering press release from Media Action Network for Asian Americans (MANAA) charges that Crowe’s troubled new rom-com, Aloha, which opens next week, reserves virtually all of its prime roles for white actors — a stellar cast including Bradley Cooper, Bill Murray, Emma Stone, Rachel McAdams, Alec Baldwin, Danny McBride and John Krasinski.
“Caucasians only make up 30 percent of the population [of Hawaii], but from watching this film, you’d think they made up 99 percent,” says MANAA’s Guy Aoki, a former resident of Hawaii.
“This comes in a long line of films — The Descendants, 50 First Dates, Blue Crush, Pearl Harbor — that uses Hawaii for its exotic backdrop but goes out of its way to exclude the very people who live there. It’s an insult to the diverse culture and fabric of Hawaii.”
The group points out that minorities can be enthusiastic ticket buyers: The seventh installment of The Fast and the Furious has sold more than $300 million worth of tickets in North America — 75 percent of those to non-white fans.
The biggest roles for Asian-Pacific Islanders in the film, Aoki claims, are for “Indian pedestrian,” “upscale Japanese tourist” and “upscale restaurant guest.” “They didn’t even have names,” Aoki adds. Referring to Crowe’s comment on social media that he wanted to play off the rich history of Hawaii, Aoki says, “How can you educate your audience to the ‘rich history’ of Hawaii by using mostly white people and excluding the majority of the people who live there and who helped build that history — APIs?”
[From Page Six]
From the impersonal description of the Asian-Pacific Islanders that do appear in this movie, it sounds like the film has been largely whitewashed. I can see why the MANAA is upset. Hawaii is usually portrayed as an exotic backdrop, a Disneyland of sorts with hula dancers being the only representation of Hawaiians or Pacific Islanders. Crowe made what looks like a throwaway romcom, but that’s no excuse. He also made specific mention about how he wanted to honor Hawaii’s “rich history” through this tale. So why the whitewashing?
Here’s the trailer for Aloha. It looks like a really bad movie.
Movie stills courtesy of Sony
There are Hawaiian actors in it. People should probably wait to see it until they start criticizing.
They’re in the background.
Don’t you understand this perpetuates racism? The fact that people don’t even think other races should be included in the dialogue or be “up front”. As long as they’re in the back, sweeping floors, washing windows, taking your change. . . then everything is equal. It’s all fine.
God help us all.
But the film is about the militiary base in Hawaii. There are probably mostly white people stationed there. There are Hawaiian actors that have roles that aren’t just in the background. Maybe you should wait to see it…
Have you ever been in the military? ” mostly white people stationed there” really? This statement is laughable if not ignorant. The military population in Hawaii is not mostly white. I was in the military for 23 years and when I saw the preview the first thing that came to my mind was, where are the black, Hispanic and Asian military personnel? What kind of Air Force is this without minorities? Then I said wont be looking at this mess…and I kept it moving. Did you know that places like Alaska, upper Michigan, North Dakota, Utah, Idaho etc. that are populated with let’s use your word “mostly white” people that have military bases have a large population of nonwhites on those military bases. Minorities are everywhere honey so please don’t make statements like that especially about our military community.
Yea…..my mom was stationed in Guam. On a military base. We lived there for four years, and I mainly saw minorities. And if I did see a white person in the military, they were usually married to a minority, lol.
Why don’t these people then follow Salma Hayek’s example? Make your own movie with the kind of crew YOU want if Hollywood is being racist. Nobody is blocking your door.
From looking up some the demographics on some of the military bases in Hawaii, it seems that the base populations are roughly 50-60% white (this was a very preliminary Wikipedia search). That being said, they are still leaving out a massive chunk (literally the other half) of the population.
@Tessa
Salma has the money to do her own projects. Unknown Hawaiian actors collectively do not have the funds or connections she does.
Did you really just “sorry you didn’t understand me” to Nikki? I think she absolutely got what you were saying and nailed the response. That sorry-not-sorry crap is ridic.
But I’m not wrong. I don’t care about someone’s anecdotal evidence.
Then why don’t you show some numbers?
@Bee – sorry, but you are wrong. The U.S. Military has a *very* strong minority presence. For this movie to be a realistic portrayal of the base in Hawaii there would need to be minority actors in key roles, not background. Nikki nailed it.
Well call me when reallity catches up to you Bee. I got 5 miles to go run.
History always equals white people to several ignorant souls.
They forget just how many POC and women were there tending to every detail that some white men is held up as the founder, created, and genius of.
A part of me kinda enjoys how a once majority is slowly becoming a minority and how it has some freaked out and running in circles like chickens with their heads cut off.
“They forget just how many POC and women were there tending to every detail that some white men is held up as the founder, created, and genius of.”
*clapping*
This in addition to the Maggie Gyllenhaal article on not being cast as the wife to a 55 year old man because she is too old at 37. Hollywood is all kinds of f****ed up.
These decisions seem to be made by insulated white aging males with noone around to call them out on their caca.
The movie looks terrible. Emma Stone as a test pilot? Come on!
I know, right! She looks like a kid playing dress-up.
Boy, ever since Elizabethtown, Cameron Crowe has really lost his mojo, or there was a key collaborator in his early success (e.g. a cowriter or editor?) that he no longer works with.
It’s my theory that this often happens with people who reach critical/popular success (novelists, musicians, too). They start to think they did it alone and forget how essential their collaborators were to the alchemy of the final piece & think they can ditch them.
Slightly off topic, but as an Australian visiting Hawaii for the first time, I felt strangely at home with its cultural and ethnic mix (Pacific Islander plus Asian influences/migration plus a sprinkling of us causasian folk.) Was all very familiar to someone from Australasia/Oceania.
More on topic: this film looks like a huge turd.
I don’t know why Cameron Crowe is so hell bent on making every film so cookie-cutter-white-American. By turning ‘We Bought A Zoon’ into an American story and populating it with big movie stars, it became a steaming pile of bollocks.
I must use “steaming pile of bollocks” in my convos today.
Seriously enough is enough. I’m so sick of this crap. I’m sure there are a bunch of Pacific Islanders that could act circles around Bradley Cooper. I guess I can take comfort from the Sony Leaks that indicated this movie was troubled anyway.
I’m going to take a moment and vent about the Descendants. Which was supposed to be about connection to Hawaiian land and culture but starred George Clooney and didn’t give one speaking role to an actual Hawaiian. Even worse I can’t think of one Alexander Payne movie with any actor of color in it hmmm.
Point taken. Agreed. To be fair, though, he directed his then-wife Sandra Oh in “Sideways”. But that’s the only person of color in his work who came immediately to my mind.
Actually that makes me really happy because I love Sideways.
Thank you for reminding me!
Um. “The Descendants?” Did you read the book? Kaui Hart Hemmings (half Hawaiian) wrote it based on very real aspects of her own family history, which is a very privileged one. Her mother is from a big Kauai plantation family which came to the islands in the early 1800s. Her stepfather was Hawaii’s Lieutenant Governor. Her story is personal & was not meant to describe all the social complexities or political correctness about how many natives get represented in various films.
I would like to also point out that there are ZERO fake babies in this film, which makes the hiring of Bradley Cooper ALONE suspect.
omg…just caused everyone in the near vicinity to look my way when I guffawed.
I’m betting the khaki booty shorts make an appearance though…it IS pretty steamy in HI, after all. well, they BETTER make an appearance…they’d save the film.
Well, you don’t know that for sure. What until you actually see the film @kiddo before you comment.
PS We will never know because neither one of us is going to see this film…
PSPS …even with Rachel McAdams who I love and will watch in anything.
PSPSPS – …you know I kinda don’t mind watching smug and as*hole Bradley Cooper (ie Wedding Crashers) but I can’t stand to watch smug but charming Bradley Coopers (ie this movie)
PSPSPSPS … Aloha also means goodbye, right?. Goodbye to the idea that Cameron Crow can make a good film anymore
The thing is, according to the trailer I’ve seen, most of the cast is supposed to be STATIONED in Hawaii because they are in the Air Force. So they wouldn’t be native Hawaiians. Doesn’t mean they couldn’t have cast secondary characters with POC, but this is the same Hollywood that made Benedict Cumberbatch Khan. The movie looks horrible.
That’s what I was thinking too – I can understand not having the majority of roles go to native Hawaiians as it is about the military and not civilian life in Hawaii, but then there should be diversity within the military roles.
BC as Khan?! What movie is this? Ffs, Hollywood, get it together!
This movie looks so bad.
I can’t believe some people that comment here, for real. They fail to read and comprehend the most simple of the messages that the article is exposing. For the last time, it’s about the blatant racism in Hollywood, erasing any trace of racial and cultural identity other than white, it’s not about this being a bad movie or being angry because there aren’t enough hawaiian actors. This hurts my soul.
Yeah, it’s annoying how some just don’t get it
This is why I so rarely comment. It goes right over their heads.
It’s hard to judge anything from that trailer. It looks like a film about a small group of people. This is different from Exodus. Moses,his wife,and others are described as people of color in the bible.
I agree, FB
The movie looks incredibly white, but you’re right, it’s not the same thing as actually changing the race of existing historical figures. It’s not on the level of Exodus; that was just blatant whitewashing.
This movie is going to BOMB big time. Alec Baldwin is a joke as an actor and Emma Stone as a test pilot? For real?
Alec Baldwin was the only one who looked convincing in the trailer. Otherwise, there was an obvious absence of chemistry between the actors.
I think Baldwin can be a really crappy human being, but I think he is great as an actor.
Small silver lining: likely, no one will ever see this piece of crap.
I really like your glass-half-full approach, Kitten.
*sneaks off to see Ultron and Cap’s booty for, oh, the fifth time…*
Lol no? He started filming American Sniper 4 months after this movie. The entire time in between he was promoting American Hustle and attending the Oscars etc. He didn’t get his chin augmented while never being out of the public eye even for a week. The differences in his face have been greatly exaggerated and can easily be explained by weight fluctuations and the presence/nonpresence of facial hair.
I’m not usually physically attracted to Bradley, but his body is very manly in that photo.
I hope it’s not whitewashed. I think director Cameron Crowe is very talented and would hate to see him do that in a movie in Hawaii. I was rooting for him with this movie because he’s had some ups and downs qualitywise these past years.
He was married to Nancy Wilson of Heart for years and beyond passionate about music also. , so I always like him for that.
Say it ain’t so, Cameron. I will wait until I see the movie before blasting him.
We need more Pacific Islanders, Asians, and many, many other people in Hollywood…but why target that rom com…what about the award winning film that George Clooney starred in “The Descendants”. Although his family were descendants of a white settler and a high ranking native woman, remarkably their cousins were actors like Beau Bridges and another white actor…there was not one Pacific islander or Polynesian person looking relative or person in that film (except as say the doorman, or the hotel clerk.)….That was a true opportunity lost. That story was about descendants of Hawaii but doncha think they could have tied one Polynesian into the story with their beauty and authenticity in real Hawaii…but no.
So, the producers cast their movie with recognizable faces in an attempt to make some money? Wow, almost like it’s a business venture.
It’s a “star vehicle” designed to put bankable actors together in the hopes they make a bundle of cash before anybody figures out the movie sucks.
It’s a movie about people stationed in Hawaii; it’s supposed to represent that demographic, not the local population.
Then it shouldn’t be called Aloha, which is a Hawaiian word, which alludes to Hawaiian culture, which you know, comes from actual Hawaiian people, who are majority non-white. That is the point. People of colour don’t like being erased so white people can make a buck. That way lies old, colonialist, racist dragons.
Hawaii has commercialized the crap out of the word aloha. It’s a little late to start claiming it as some sort of protected word when it’s used for everything from new commercials to sell Kona Brewing Co. beer to commercials luring white tourists from Iowa.
The state is content to take the hundreds of millions of dollars brought in by the military; it’s a little disingenuous to cry foul when somebody makes a movie about it.
Thank you!!
I tend to agree with this. Movies are made to make money. Using “name” actors as leads isn’t a new thing, no matter the subject of a film.
They should question everything about this movie if it bombs. Maybe a more realistic cast would’ve been a fresher take. The old formula of casting a movie with all white stars in order to appeal to audiences is over. With the growth of minority market and the international market, many films have diversified. They cast Asian actors in Age of Utron specifically for the Chinese market. The Fast and the Furious was a huge hit and they pointed out their diversity in their marketing. The new Star Wars movies are also diverse. Hollywood is not an altruistic place. They’re doing it to make a buck. Or a billions bucks, as it were.
The underlying assumption of your assertion, then, is that only white people have money to market to? And that only white actors are “bankable”? Institutionalized racism at its most blatant.
+1000
“Aloha”, whose trailers I saw last week when I went to “Age of Adaline”, looks like a massive turd. It’s the usual bit of poorly written schlock with red arrows connecting one line to the next, announcing to the audience: “You will NOW think this; you will NOW feel that . . .” Asian Hawaiians have been spared the embarrassment of being part of it. That said . . .
The person who writes the story, usually writes out of his or her own experience. A location shouldn’t direct a demographic, the story’s characters do. “The Jewel in the Crown” (although I hesitate to mention it in the same breath as “Aloha”) is written about the British and Indian experience as the Raj ends, and so has roles for both demographics, and roles that are nuanced so that neither demographic fits neatly into a stereotype. Should Daphne Manners have been played by an Indian because the story is set in India?!
The problem is who is writing the films and who has access to the money to get them produced. A better critique in this line is, why aren’t Asian written films about the Asian experience in Hawaii getting funded? Writers tend to write who they are. That’s a given. The true issue is access to power and funding.
Meanwhile, again, after seeing the trailers, which made me wince in my seat, the silver lining is that the white actors, director, writer, etc., will all take the heat for this piece of garbage. The rest are well out of it.
Hawaii 5-0 anyone? The boss is white, second in comand too… the re-make has more representation of locals and other ethnic backgrounds than the original series imho… but still… nothing (sadly) new.
I wonder if the movie had used a different title, if people wouldn’t get so mad. I do think using “Aloha” as the title — and then pretending the locals don’t exist — is somewhat of a slap in the face to Hawaii.
I spent three years on a navy base in Pearl City. Those three years were a valuable experience on “living in the minority.” There are significantly less Caucasians. I’m not claiming myself as a minorty – so please don’t jump me – but it was definitely an eye opening experience to be in an environment where I stand out. And I will definitely stamp this movie as whitewashed.
Also, fire Emma Stone for pronouncing Menehune incorrectly.
Cameron Crowe whitens more than bleach, I’m not surprised. I’ve always hated his anodyne crap and that includes your precious Lloyd Dobler. His sludge is so self-impressed and precious, I honestly don’t know what people see in him. Thinking of it, it’s only ever been white people I’ve met who go nuts over his oeuvre, which makes sense on all accounts, I guess.
No one else gives a crap.
Um, I just watched The Descendents yesterday and a big part of the movie was George Clooney’s character not wanting to sell native Hawaiians and their state to the highest bidder in favor of preserving the culture. How is that excluding the people who live there? The story was ABOUT white people.
Yeah I watched the descendants 2-3 years ago and can’t exactly remember but it seemed there were many Asian characters (even if they weren’t the main characters- main characters were a white family, and a lot of the movie was about the inter family dynamic) plus the plot about their land and what would happen to it, it didn’t seem particularly unrealistic, racist, or “whitewashed”
The trailer doesn’t look good but with all those actors I love in it I will probably watch it at home some time. If it was so bad why would they all sign on?
$$$$$’s
This movie looks god awful, besides the typical hollywood whitewash. I suspect we won’t be seeing a change in attitude until the current generation of power players move over. They are still mired in the notion that lead actors must be recognizable white actors, because despite the undeniable diversity of the audience, hollywood is run pretty much by a monoculture, and they like to see idealized versions of themselves on screen. Which probably explains Bradley Cooper’s popularity. Just my opinion.