Why does Hawaii = haole in Hollywood?

As Hawaii residents, we love to see our island home featured on the big screen. We like to catch the visual clues of places we’ve been to, restaurants we’ve eaten at and even cultural aspects that are unique to Hawaii. So we get our popcorn with kakimochi, get comfy, start watching. And then it hits us. ”Eh! Where’s all the locals?” Every. Single. Time.

As fortunate as we’ve been to have Hawaii featured in so many Hollywood productions, it’s equally as unfortunate that the diversity of our population has never been truly represented accurately on film. Asians and Pacific Islanders make up nearly 50 percent of the state’s population (not including hapa), but you wouldn’t know from watching movies set here. If it weren’t for the beaches, palm trees and fruity cocktails with paper umbrellas, you wouldn’t even know that most of these movies took place in Hawaii.

The trailer for the new film “Aloha” looks like more of the same. We’re shown big name actors with beautiful backdrops but not a person of color in sight. Bradley Cooper. Emma Stone. Rachel McAdams. Alec Baldwin. Bill Murray. All big stars and all great actors. But you couldn’t spare at least one or two of those roles for non-whites? I haven’t seen the film yet so I won’t pass judgement on it completely, but it doesn’t look too promising from the trailer or the cast listing on IMDB. Why does Hollywood insist on making Hawaii so haole?

I understand the need to sell films with major Hollywood stars. You need big names above the marquee to attract the crowds, and that’s where household names like Bradley Cooper come in. But why can’t the rest of these casts feature at least a few Asians and Pacific Islanders? It could be rationalized that the predominantly white casts of films such as “Aloha,” “Battleship” and “Pearl Harbor” are due to the films being about the military in Hawaii, but there are lots of minorities in the armed forces as well, especially in Hawaii.

The other excuse could be that films set in Hawaii are usually about people who are visiting and not really locals. Still, how does that explain the supporting cast of “The Descendants” or the fact that everyone who works at Turtle Bay Hotel looks like Paul Rudd or Jonah Hill according to “Forgetting Sarah Marshall?”

Let’s face it. We sell our tropical beaches, luaus and aloha shirts in return for big wads of cash. It’s the foundation of our tourism industry and much of our economy. But there’s no reason that has to trickle down to Hollywood. Why should Asians and Pacific Islanders be relegated to playing background extras, cheesy performers or stereotypical comic relief?

For once, I’d like to see big-screen Asians and Pacific Islanders play characters with some depth. TV shows such as “The Byrds of Paradise” and “Hawaii Five-0” have done a much better job of portraying a more accurate picture with minority actors playing policemen, educators and doctors. So why can’t the movies do the same? We all know that there are non-haoles in Hawaii who speak perfect English, can do more than perform a fire dance and believe it or not, have real emotions and intelligent thoughts.

Maybe we should set some conditions for films set in Hawaii. Perhaps for every movie filmed here, at least 20 percent of the actors have to be Asian or Pacific Islander. That’s actually less than half of the actual percentage, but baby steps. In any case, something has to be done. It’s about time Hollywood showed the people of Hawaii some real “aloha.”