Welcome to another whitewashing controversy
The latest spark in the debate over whitewashing Asians and Pacific Islanders from film and TV came with news reported May 9, by Deadline: A Glasgow-based writer/director and a British production company are dramatizing the little-known and fraught story of the Second World War Ni’ihau incident — with a white actor cast as the Hawaiian war hero who stopped a foreign takeover.
Zach McGowan will play Benehakaka “Ben” Kanahele, who was ultimately awarded the Medal for Merit and the Purple Heart by President Franklin Roosevelt for his actions on the island of Ni’ihau.
In 1941, a Japanese pilot crash landed on the Hawaiian island after Pearl Harbor, where he was aided by some residents with Japanese lineage. Kanahele and his wife Ella, initially taken as hostages, killed the pilot. Historians have debated the role the incident played in the lead-up to JapaneseAmerican internment.
News of McGowan’s casting was immediately met with backlash on social media among those frustrated with seeing white actors cast for roles they feel should be
Literally everyone in this story is Asian & Pacific Islander, from heroes to villains. We can’t own our own history!
played by Asians and Pacific Islanders. Similar outcries bubbled up when Emma Stone played the part Native Hawaiian, part Chinese character Allison Ng in Aloha — a casting choice director Cameron Crowe ended up apologizing for. Or when Scarlett Johansson played the lead in Ghost in the Shell.
While some past whitewashing controversies involved fictional stories with roles that presumably could have been written for white stars, Ni’ihau is based on real events.
“Literally everyone in this story is Asian & Pacific Islander, from heroes to villains,” tweeted Jeff Yang, who has written on whitewashing in Hollywood. “We can’t own our own history!”
Producer Ken Petrie told Deadline that, as with any attempt to tell a true story, “there is a weight to be shouldered, and the material requires the utmost care and authenticity” — a comment that drew particular ire online.
“They could have tried Jason Scott Lee, they could have tried Kala Alexander, they could have tried Jason Momoa. There’s a lot of good actors out there that could have played this part,” Guy Aoki, president of Media Action Network for Asian Americans, told Hawaii News Now. “Unfortunately, a lot of people in Hollywood believe that in order to have a better chance of making a profit on their films, they have to get a white actor.”