Cameron Crowe has apologised (kind of) for casting Emma Stone as part-Chinese character in Aloha.

“Accepting Emma Stone as an Asian-American in Aloha requires a certain suspension of disbelief and no small amount of magical thinking.”

The director of new Hollywood rom-com Aloha has apologised for casting “the wonderful Emma Stone” as a part-Chinese character following allegations the film “whitewashed” Hawaii with its all Caucasian cast.

“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,” Cameron Crowe said on his website The Uncool.

He then goes on to defend the choice.

“As far back as 2007, Captain Allison Ng (Stone’s character) was written to be a super-proud ¼ Hawaiian who was frustrated that, by all outward appearances, she looked nothing like one. A half-Chinese father was meant to show the surprising mix of cultures often prevalent in Hawaii.  Extremely proud of her unlikely heritage, she feels personally compelled to over-explain every chance she gets. The character was based on a real-life, red-headed local who did just that.”

The talented director said he was grateful for the dialogue surround the casting of the movie, which is out in Australian cinemas today and has not received the best reviews.

“And from the many voices, loud and small, I have learned something very inspiring,” he said.

“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.”

Mamamia previously reported:

Bradley Cooper, Emma Stone, Rachel McAdams, Alec Baldwin and Bill Murray.

A movie with a star-studded roll call of this calibre is usually a guaranteed success.

But writer and director Cameron Crowe – whose hit movies include Jerry Maguire and Almost Famous – has come under fire for “whitewashing” Hawaii in his new movie Aloha.

Advocacy group Media Action Network for Asian Americans (MANAA) says the white cast is completely unrepresentative of the rich cultural diversity of the islands.

“Caucasians only make up 30 percent of the population (of Hawaii), but from watching this film, you’d think they made up 99 percent,” MANAA co-founder Guy Aoki said in a statement.

Based on those statistics, the chance of the three main characters (played by Cooper, Stone and McAdams) all being white is about three per cent. (Props to Google for re-teaching me how to work out the probability of independent events. And thanks for nothing, high school maths.)

Mr Aoki says Asians play only non-speaking background characters in the film.

“It’s an insult to the diverse culture and fabric of Hawaii,” he said.

The film, to be released in Australia on Thursday, has something to do with a fancy Air Force dude (Cooper) returning to Hawaii, his “old stomping ground” and reconnecting with his ex-girlfriend (McAdams) while falling for a young Air Force firecracker (Stone).

But critics are questioning the casting choice of the undoubtedly talented actors, including Stone, who plays Allison Ng – a fighter pilot of Chinese-Hawaiin-Swedish descent and a Hula-dancing expert thanks to her half-Hawaiian-half-Chinese father.

“Accepting Emma Stone as an Asian-American in Aloha requires a certain suspension of disbelief and no small amount of magical thinking,” Chris Lee for Entertainment Weekly has pointed out.

“But in order to process this idea of Stone as a bi-racial character, as someone whose genetic lineage can be traced back to the Middle Kingdom by way of Polynesia, you must first get past the obvious stumbling blocks: her alabaster skin and strawberry blond hair, her emerald eyes and freckles—past the star’s outwardly unassailable #Caucasity – if only because the movie hammers home her cultural other-ness in just about every other scene.”

For a more complete synopsis, watch this (post continues after video):

But it’s not the first flick to misrepresent the islands, Mr Aoki says.

The Descendants, 50 First Dates, Blue Crush and Pearl Harbor are called out as the other cinematic culprits.

What do you think? (Post continues after gallery)

Film studio Sony has denied the claims.

“While some have been quick to judge a movie they haven’t seen and a script they haven’t read, the film ‘Aloha’ respectfully showcases the spirit and culture of the Hawaiian people,” it said in a statement.

“Filmmaker Cameron Crowe spent years researching this project and many months on location in Hawaii, cultivating relationships with leading local voices. He earned the trust of many Hawaiian community leaders, including Dennis ‘Bumpy’ Kanahele, who plays a key role in the film.”

And some extra trivia for you… These stars actually are Hawaiian-born:

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Do you think Aloha is whitewashed?