Cameron Crowe apologizes to anyone offended by Emma Stone's role in Aloha

Cameron Crowe is apologizing to anyone offended that he cast Emma Stone in a partially Asian, partially Hawaiian role in the film Aloha.

• Aloha movie draws disapproval for using Hawaiian word for title

Stone's character, Captain Allison Ng, is a quarter Hawaiian, and she has a half-Chinese father. In a message posted on his website, TheUncool.com, Crowe says the character was always intended to be someone frustrated that she lacked outward signs of her ethnicity.

"Extremely proud of her unlikely heritage," Crowe wrote Wednesday, "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."

Some, including the Media Action Network for Asian Americans, saw Stone's casting as another example of Hollywood whitewashing Asian-American movie roles.

Crowe wrote that "if any part of [Stone's] fine characterization has consternation and controversy, I am the one to blame."

The writer-director said he was "grateful for the dialogue" and that he would strive to tell stories with racial diversity in the future.