Why is Emma Stone's Aloha movie very controversial? Explained

Aloha is a 2015 romantic comedy directed and co-produced by Cameron Crowe, whose prior credits include Almost Famous and Jerry Maguire. The film had a military-themed story set in Hawaii and featured a prominent quarter-Hawaiian character.

The film ran into significant controversy, however, because this Hawaiian character, Air Force Captain Allison Ng, was played by the Caucasian Emma Stone.

Ethnic representation has become an increasingly contentious issue in Hollywood. One term to arise from this is "whitewashing," wherein characters of a particular ethnicity are played by Caucasian actors instead of someone who shares that ethnicity.

Hollywood has a long history of facing whitewashing accusations throughout the years. Special interest groups such as the Media Action Network of Asian Americans have argued that casting choices such as those made in the movie reduces acting opportunities for marginalized communities such as Asian Americans.

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Emma Stone played a Hawaiian character in Aloha

Aloha garnered massive backlash because Emma Stone played the Hawaiian Allison Ng despite not being Hawaiian herself.

While director Cameron Crowe did attempt to rationalize this decision, both he and Emma Stone were ultimately apologetic. As Camron wrote on his blog, The Uncool on June 2, 2025,

"As far back as 2007, Captain Allison Ng was written to be a super-proud ¼ Hawaiian who was frustrated that, by all outward appearances, she looked nothing like one."

He further added,

"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."

Emma Stone herself apologized for her role in the film on multiple occasions, with her claiming that the controversy gave her a new awareness of Hollywood's long history of whitewashing.

She, however, echoed director Cameron Crowe's comments about Allison Ng's intended appearance, refraining from throwing him under the bus.

Both Aloha and the 2017 film Ghost In the Shell's whitewashing controversies were referenced in the 2019 Golden Globe Awards, co-hosted by Grey's Anatomy's Sandra Oh.

She spoke about the 2018 film Crazy Rich Asians, which did have a lot of Asian-American representation, and jokingly compared it to the aforementioned films. Emma Stone, who was in the audience, yelled out an apology in response.

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Aloha was a commercial and critical dud

Aloha did not win over audiences or critics. (Image via Sony Pictures Entertainment)

The movie didn't make great numbers at the box office, nor was it particularly well-received by critics.

The film failed to break even in box office revenue, earning $26.3 million against a $37 million budget.

As a consequence, the film wasn't even theatrically released in the United Kingdom and France and instead went direct-to-video. Per a September 2015 report from The Hollywood Reporter, the estimated losses of the film amounted to $65 million.

As for critical reception, the film has a 20% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with the critical consensus reading:

"Meandering and insubstantial, Aloha finds writer-director Cameron Crowe at his most sentimental and least compelling."

Among the reviews the film received, Rolling Stone magazine's Peter Travers described the film as a mess, consisting of disparate stories struggling with a unifying tone.

Variety's Andrew Barker considered it the worst film Cameron Crowe had ever directed, considering it unbalanced, struggling under its own weight, and nearly unintelligible.

Ultimately, Aloha would end up a film best remembered for its controversies over all else.

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Aloha is available for streaming on Netflix.