Also known as, “What the hell, Hollywood?”
Aloha is obviously a Hawaiian term for saying “Hello”. But if you look at the cast for this movie, you would not think that this is set in Hawaii, which has the “highest percentage of Asian Americans and Multi-racial Americans, and the lowest percentage of White Americans of any state” (credit: Wikipedia) . The movie trailer is so filled with white Americans that I would have thought the movie was set in Los Angeles.
But what sets me off is Emma Stone’s character.
Note: I love Emma Stone and this is in no way an insult on her. This is more of a critique on the casting director’s choice and the director himself.
Emma Stone’s character is Allison Ng. That’s right, Allison Ng.
Does the woman in the above picture look in any way, shape, or form an Asian?
One would say, “Hey, let’s not stereotype Asians to look a certain way.” But her character is supposed to be a quarter Chinese and a quarter Native Hawaiian (credit: IMDB peeps who watched the movie already). Emma Stone does not look Asian or Polynesian at all. Hell, she does not even have any Asian parentage. She looks like Allison Walker, not Allison Ng.
What really angers me is that Hollywood tends to white-wash a lot of its characters but this is too much. I would not mind it if she was adopted. But to have her character’s background to be half Asian and Polynesian is just… I cannot accept that at all. I’ve had enough of this!
Cameron Crowe, there are a lot of Asian actresses out there, some who are probably as awesome as Emma Stone. Do you want me to list down brilliant and talented Asian actresses for you? Here it goes…
- Maggie Q
- Claudia Kim – she’s in Avengers 2, for goodness’ sake!
- Jamie Chung – I could easily see her in this role
- Arden Cho
- Fan Bingbing
- Doona Bae
- Kristin Kreuk – did people just forget this girl?
- Rinko Kikuchi – love her
- Zhang Ziyi
- Katie Chang
- Malese Jow
- Shay Mitchell
- Constance Wu
- Celina Jade
- Grace Park – she’s in Hawaii Five 0, c’mon now!
- Jenna Ushkowitz – Tina Cohen-Changggggg!
- Chloe Bennet – she’s cute, she can be hilarious in Agents of Shield and she kicks ass as Skye too.
Note: I’m thinking of someone with East-Asian parentage. There are a lot more Asian actresses out there like Mindy Kaling and Aishwarya Rai but, let’s face it, these two cannot get away with a character’s name of Allison Ng as well.
I can list down 17 actresses already and I’m sure there are more out there but Cameron Crowe could not find one that fits this role? None at all? You have got to be kidding me.
I love movies, I really do. And I cannot get away from Hollywood movies but I really have had it up to here with their nonsensical casting at this point.
Some people might ask: “Well, they cast an African-American girl as Annie.” My response would be: “Because the movie was supposed to be an African-American version of Annie!” These two situations are so far off from each other. Allison Ng is half-Asian and Polynesian. That fact does not change. What makes it blatantly worse is having such a character to be played by an obviously white American woman!
Hollywood needs to stop being a racist and sexist industry. You are not making it any easier for people from all over the world to like you. Remember, representation is key when presenting something to the world. You are making a group of people in this world feel very small and very unworthy. And also, very angry.
Love it or hate it? Absolutely hate it. Not watching it. Love Emma Stone but hate the movie.
Trailer:
This Siti Never Sleeps At Night 