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Emma Stone playing an Asian-American in 'Aloha' is bizarre as fuck.

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N

NotTheGuyYouKill

Member
The movie's getting ripped apart by critics and got totaled at the BO. But of course. Even in the Sony leaks, everyone said it was total shit.

But the thing that makes no sense to me, is Emma Stone playing an Asian-American character named Alison Ng.

171659.png


Ha, nah, but seriously. I came across this piece on Variety:

I'm not buying Emma Stone as an Asian-American in Aloha

Accepting Emma Stone as an Asian-American in Aloha requires a certain suspension of disbelief and no small amount of magical thinking. In the Hawaii-set romantic comedy-drama, she portrays Allison Ng: an aggressively peppy Air Force fighter pilot of Chinese-Hawaiian-Swedish decent who falls for an existentially angst-y military contractor played by Bradley Cooper.

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.

Thanks to the character’s half-Hawaiian-half-Chinese father, Ng (“Rhymes with ‘ing’!”) is a Hula dancing expert with a functional knowledge of Hawaiian folk guitar who rhapsodizes about the islander spiritual energy mana when she isn’t attempting to save the archipelago from a creeping military-industrial complex.
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Which doesn’t and shouldn’t take anything away from Stone, a commanding screen presence whose bona fides as an Oscar nominee-come-Jimmy Fallon lip-sync battle champion and Millennial lodestar are beyond reproach. It’s just that the actress’ casting begs a number of sticky questions. Chief among them: If Ng’s Hawaiian pedigree is so crucial to the movie’s plot, why not simply cast an actress—Olivia Munn for instance—whose racial profile is within the genetic ballpark? Or, if the endgame was to hire a proven box-office draw like the Birdman and Amazing Spider-Man co-star, why not back-burner the issue of Ng’s race while focusing dialogue around her cultural heritage as a native Hawaiian?

Maybe it’s because multiracial people aren’t known to vote, spend or even patronize films as any kind of cohesive political block; our cinematic presence is exceedingly rare. In the modern movie era, you’re statistically more likely to encounter an alien marauder or murderous android splashed across multiplex screens than any identifiably bi-racial character. Yet, according to a 2013 Census Bureau report, we comprise the fastest-growing population in America. Which makes Crowe’s choice of Stone as the melanin-free embodiment of Hawaiian soul and one of the most prominent part-Asian characters ever to appear in a mainstream Hollywood film so baffling.
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Don't get me wrong, Emma Stone's a great actor. Plus, she's gorgeous to boot (not that that has anything to do with anything) But she doesn't even remotely look Asian.

emma-stone-5.jpg
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Yeah, that's just... It's just weird. I mean, maybe Crowe is trying to subvert people's expectations? Probably just typical Hollywood white washing.

mgid:uma:image:mtv.com:10005586
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C

Corpekata

Banned
I knew they had recast the part but I thought it was just they made the character white and discarded the background. Which is shitty, but this is almost impressively shittier.
 
T

TheBryanJZX90

Member
I mean maybe if the character was actually an incredibly lifelike android body with the brain of a mixed race female, but this??? Bizarre.
 
G

googleplex

Member
Hollywood just being Hollywood

Also see Exiodus: God's and kings.

But Will Smith uses his influence to open up doors for his son? He gets tons of hate. And cries of nepotism ring out across the Internet.
 
A

Apt101

Member
Well, I am half Asian and many people guess I'm simply a tan white man, or "Hawaiian" (what a coincidence). I dated a girl who was half Chinese and Swedish and basically looked white. So it's not unheard of. Look at Keannu Reeves.

But anyways. Emma Stone looks really, really white, so not sure what they were thinking.
 
B

BocoDragon

or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Realize This Assgrab is Delicious
And yet imagine how much worse the backlash would be if they actually tried to use makeup to make her look Asian...
 
N

NotTheGuyYouKill

Member
Apt101 said:
Well, I am half Asian and many people guess I'm simply a tan white man, or "Hawaiian" (what a coincidence). I dated a girl who was half Chinese and Swedish and basically looked white. So it's not unheard of. Look at Keannu Reeves.

But anyways. Emma Stone looks really, really white, so not sure what they were thinking.
Click to expand...

Keanu doesn't look super-white:

keanu.jpg
Click to expand...
 
N

nasax

Member
Apt101 said:
Well, I am half Asian and many people guess I'm simply a tan white man, or "Hawaiian" (what a coincidence). I dated a girl who was half Chinese and Swedish and basically looked white. So it's not unheard of. Look at Keannu Reeves.

But anyways. Emma Stone looks really, really white, so not sure what they were thinking.
Click to expand...

"Chinese-Hawaiian-Swedish decent"

Yeah I don't get the big deal from the OP.
 
A

Apt101

Member
BocoDragon said:
I definitely wouldn't have ever noticed he was half Asian if it were not pointed out to me.

But when you hear that you go "oh, I totally see it"

Emma Stone on the other hand...
Click to expand...

Same here. I didn't find out he was part Asian until years after the Matrix. I have a fried who is part of a big family in Hawaii and he's a really big deal there - is how I discovered it. It seems plain as day now, but at first, second, and third glance I couldn't tell.
 
1

17 Seconds

Banned
Am I the only one that thinks Emma Stone looks like a frog? I know that's mean, but I don't get why so many guys love her.
 
S

suzu

Member
She was the best person for the role and there were just no good Asian or Mixed-Asian actresses at all. lol
 
S

sgjackson

Member
i kinda want to see this even though i know it's terrible because i want emma stone to be in a good cameron crowe movie :(
 
K

Ke0

Member
I just discovered this movie via the box office sales thread. Wow this is some really horrible crap.
 
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