That Bizarre Emma Stone Casting Decision [throw back]

which is not very far away. We have to come back to work, clar We have to come back to work. Who we have, Yes, we do. I'm not working out how many days, but allegedly it's soon. Anyway, Today we need to talk about emmastone. Can you picture her in your mind? Should she have played a Hawaiian woman who was part Asian in a film. Absolutely not. It's not for us to say. But no, I don't know. No. This is a moment from our big episode on emmastone

Jesse Aloha controversy. This is perhaps one of my favorite canceled defenses of all time. Aloha was a twenty fifteen romantic comedy starring Bradley Cooper, Rachel McAdams, John Krasinski, Phil Murray, and Emmastone. You can't let one small mouth Falgus.

who the director was his favorite movie. He makes everyone watch it. It's not that good anyway. As of today, Cameron Crowe has not directed a film since Aloha because he was on a run. It will soon become clear why he was like writer director. He was dominating Hollywood stride, and then he went, I'm gonna take a risk here. I'm going to make a film called Aloha after how you say Hello Wai in Hawaii, and I'm gonna really take a swing and cast Emma Stone. Did she play

a Hawaiian person? A quarter Hawaiian, a quarter Chinese? Oh shit, Okay, yeah, I tried to watch this years ago and couldn't. That's how bad it was. If you like to watch things that are upsetting to yeah, I went, I went, it's set in a beautiful place. Yeah, it's got a beautiful cast. Yeah, the plot's horrific. What else could I want? Yeah? What could I want? I couldn't watch it. It was commercially

and critically a failure. It costs thirty seven million to make and then grossed twenty six million with that cast, with that cast, so word must have rows it about because my memory is a an Emma Stone with makeup that made her racially ambiguous, which I'm pretty sure is

more racist and I think like a military vibe. Okay, the premise is this, While an assignment in Hawaii, military contractor Brian Gilcrest Bradley Cooper reconnects with his old flamee Rachel McAdams, now married to an Air Force recruit, John Krasinski. He also spends time with Alison John Krasinski the office Office. Yeah, I love that guy. Yeah, yeah, and he's really hot in it. He's kind of jacked. He also spends time with Alison Ning Emma Stone, a hard nosed fighter pilot

who watches every move that he makes. As they travel through the lush terrain, Brian finds himself falling for Ning, while his conversations with Tracy provide a shocking revelation from their past. Now it's too confusing, it's too confusing. Let me tell you about the character Alison Ing. It's ng. It's like ring without the R or the ice. As I said, she's meant to be one quarter Chinese, one

quarter Hawaiian. She's sort of like the cultural voice in this right, but she's played by Emma Stone, which is problematic in that Emma Stone is German, English, Irish and wait for it, because this is important Scottish. This is why we look alike. We've got identical backgrounds. No, genuinely. There was unsurprisingly backlash to this casting decision. A Jezebel headline read, Emma Stone playing a half Asian character in

Aloha literally? Why? Literally? The Media Action Network for Asian Americans released a statement about the all white casting of a movie set in Hawaii, and they said that sixty percent of Hawaii's population is Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. Caucasians make up about thirty percent of the population, but from watching the film, you'd think they made up ninety nine percent. Now. The director responded to the backlash and

he said, I've heard your words and your disappointment. I offer a heartfelt apology to all who felt this was an odd or misguided casting choice. So has he explained, well, yes, okay, all right, as far back as two thousand and seven, Captain Allison Ing, we've written to be a super proud one quarter Hawaiian who was frustrated that by all outward appearances, she looked nothing like one Okay, 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 redheaded local who did just that. Ah, that's all lovely. The difference is that the local was actually Hawaiian. Okay, Yeah, Hollywood has an appalling track record when it comes to diverse representation. And did you not think it was strange? Do make Emma Stone play someone with the last name ying did nothing?

The issue, isn't it? And it's also like she's not some unknown actress where you could almost put aside everything you knew about them and maybe go, hey, maybe not actress. It's Hawaiian. I know she's not. She is the whitest actress who exists. She's so so white, which is fine because ninety nine percent of roles for really white people. Yeah, so we got one role here for someone who isn't complete, isn't completely white. Yeah, and we go you know what,

you know it hasn't been given a chance. Emily, little old Emily. You know, she was fifteen inch made that PowerPoint. Yeah, she hustled, Let's give her a go. Oh. I really do think this is one of those examples. I'm obsessed with how things like this happen in Hollywood, right that no one sits around the table and goes Because I think what happened is Cameron Crowe wrote it, and he went, I'll just ask, I'll ask, and if it's weird, she'll

tell me, she'll say something. And maybe she thought he asked, it must not be weird. Yeah, And then I think Bradley Cooper was like, well, I don't know. He said that it's fine. Everyone thought the other would check. Yeah, it's a class studio meeting, and you're thinking, no, the studio checked. We got this signed off by all Hawaiian people, yeah, or something. Somebody did something to make sure that this was It's a diffusion of responsibility. It's no one person's fault.

It is everyone's fault to varying degree. Because I think Emma Stone is also like, hold on, Rachel McAdams is in this film. She wouldn't sign on if this is offensive. Bradley Cooper wouldn't know. John Krasinski seems like a good guy. Yeah, he wouldn't star in a scene with me if I was cosplaying somebody of a different race when I really but everybody at the whensk I made Vanilla Skuy. Yeah, he doesn't do stupid things. And then he's gone, oh look,

it's just yeah. It was definitely one of those things where you look at the poster and you're like, oh shit, how did that happen? They want me to believe em the Stone's Hawaiian who made that? Call all of you a little bit. But Jesse, it wasn't just that the casting was bad. It was the film itself. And speaking of people, you cancel along the way Cameron grow, Okay, what's he steel? And why hasn't he worked since other than a lower Because it was so bad? I think

he got scared away from Hollywood. Yeah, Jesse come up against this in the cancel courtroom before. When people do a really bad piece of work, they hide, they hide, they retreat into a sou and they go, never mind me, here's a review. And then they retreat and then they throw Emmstone out and then they go back to their snow cave. Sorry if you're hurt, but they're offering in the Stone Yeah, look, here's Emma Stone. Yeah, Bradley Like, he's just offering people going leave me alone in a

snow cave in my cave. Here's a review from Vox. Crow came into a low heart with a cast that could melt silver linings, playbooks, off the planet, a dreamy setting that people wouldn't mind spending eternity staring at. A script that rights itself. Filmed set in Hawaii and Hawaii. When we went to Hawaii, we were like, boom forgetting Sarah Marshall. Yeah, Boom, Blue crash, boom, hich go to every set. Yes, And I've just realized that all of those movies are about white people. You know what I

didn't do. I didn't say, where's Aaloha filmed? Because I didn't did say care, let's go to the Jurassic Park part Yeah? Yeah, because that was very good. But the

whitewashing of Hawaii, it's serious. It's very problematic. Yeah. The Vox review said, it's a script that writes itself because people will throw money at you to see Bradley Cooper kiss Emma Stone and Rachel McAdams and the actual real life experience of living in Hawaii It's both mystifying and unfair that he managed to take all that and turn it into whatever Aloha is. I just could not shake the films haunting and naked mediocrity. I was left thinking

about Aloha long after I left the theater. The movie taunted me in a way that other bad movies hadn't. This is when we do our movie marathon where we watch and live blog cats, which we've been promising to do for a while because of James Hardy's involvement. Yeah, I think Aloha is after that. Yeah, No, I think it's really important that we will. I watched the trailer and I went, yeah, nah, it doesn't make sense. Doesn't make sense. So Emma Stone what has sometimes been referred

to as the mannic Pixie dream girl. Oh yeah, And interestingly, it was a Cameron Crowe film, Elizabethtown that made a reviewer coin that term with the Kirsten Dunce. Yet I do remember, because I did start to watch this movie before I turned it off, and I do remember that Emma Stone's character was all like blah, like just like had no filter and turning up everywhere and like way too straightly. But I'm hot, Yeah, I'm crazy, but I'm sexy.

I'm actually so crazy it makes me sexy. Yea, yeah, yeah, So I'd.

she apologized for her role. In a twenty fifteen interview, She said the controversy around her casting opened her eyes in many ways. She said, I've become the butt of many jokes. I've learnt on a macro level about how insane the history of whitewashing is. In Hollywood, and how prevalent the problem truly is. It ignited a conversation that's

very important. Then there was a moment at the Golden Globes in twenty nineteen where the host made a joke about crazy rich Asians and how it was the first movie to tell an Asian story since Aloha, and Emma Stone called out, I'm sorry.

not hustling enough for her success. We're recanceling three things every week over the summer break, including celebrities, TV shows, celebrity couples, and press tours because we need to keep the investigations running. You can find videos from the podcast and evidence of the celebrity crime on our Instagram at the Twins Underscore Thoughts, or on TikTok At canceled the podcast, Bye