Crowe responds to ‘Aloha’ critics
“Aloha” director Cameron Crowe responded to criticism of his casting Emma Stone as a part-Asian character in his romantic comedy set in Hawaii.
“I have heard your words and your disappointment, and I offer you a heart-felt apology to all who felt this was an odd or misguided casting choice,” Crowe wrote on his blog, the Uncool, Tuesday evening.
The story of a jaded defense contractor (Bradley Cooper) looking to get his life back together costars Stone as Allison Ng, an Air Force pilot who is one-quarter Chinese and one-quarter Hawaiian on her father’s side; her mother is of Swedish descent.
“Captain Allison Ng was written to be a super-proud
1⁄ Hawaiian who was frus
4 trated that, by all outward appearances, she looked nothing like one,” Crowe wrote. “A half-Chinese father was meant to show the surprising mix of cultures often prevalent in Hawaii. ... The character was based on a real-life, red-headed local who did just that.”
Crowe added that “so many of us are hungry for stories with more racial diversity, more truth in representation, and I am anxious to help tell those stories in the future.”