Aloha is the latest film from acclaimed director Cameron Crowe (Fast Times at Ridgemont High/Jerry McGuire). His new film, set in Hawaii, stars Emma Stone and Bradley Cooper. Here’s a quick Q&A with the lead actors.
TOM: Let’s talk about where your characters are when the movie opens. Brian Gilcrest; he’s a military contractor, but he’s a guy who’s got something of a past, something of a reputation? Idealist turned cynic? How would you describe this guy?
COOPER: He was intelligent and had a knack for space command, but then his ideology, his innocence was lost when he realized the inner workings of certain dealings between countries. He went for the money and became a private contractor, working for Carson Welch (played by Bill Murray), and found himself in Afghanistan a year before the movie starts doing something quite wrong and being injured because of it. Now he has a second chance and it’s sort of a movie about redemption. He’s going back to Hawaii to fulfill many things: a gate blessing, maybe something else, an ex-girlfriend, somebody new in his life and more to come.
TOM: And Emma, what about you? I mean Captain Allison, she initially comes across as kind of a female Dudley Do-Right.
STONE: She has her nose to the grindstone and she’s really driven to succeed in the military, and she’s doing it because she has a huge belief in the goodness of mankind really, and protecting the sky. She is at heart a Hawaiian and believes in the land and the natives and the sprits and the myths, and you know the combination of the two of those things in a person can be complicated. On a more micro level, it’s kind of what the movie is about – how you balance all of these different elements in your life and move forward and make the right decisions.
TOM: To say that these two don’t gel at the beginning is a bit of an understatement, but I think the differences between Allison and Brian is beautifully demonstrated by the way each of them handles the task of securing the approval for the blessing by the Hawaiian elders and the community. What metaphoric guns does each one pull out of their armory?
COOPER: Brian uses his past, how he stands in relation to Bumpy, his old friend. Then he gets hijacked by this new upstart who befriends him with her love of music and sincere interest in what her plight is.
STONE: Yeah, I think her sincerity gets her kind of everywhere.
TOM: Hawaii provides an absolutely spectacular backdrop for this. It looks beautiful; it’s a great emotional pull; it’s a melodic pull as well. Can you tell us something about the vibe of the place and with shooting the film there as well? I mean you got to work with musical legends as well.
STONE: It was fantastic working with Ledward [Kaapana], who’s the most incredible slack key guitarist alive. It was really special. And Bumpy Kanahele played himself in the movie. He spoke to me about what it means to be Hawaiian and what it means to walk on the bones of your ancestors and know your roots. It was a pretty special experience.
TOM: Cameron certainly doesn’t pay lip service to the place. He used a lot of the native people behind-the-scenes and in front of them as well.
COOPER: It was very much a film that utilized everything that it possibly could. All the stuff that we did when we go up to the Kingdom and meet Bumpy, there weren’t any actors except for us. We shot at Hickam Air Force Base, which had all of those military men and women in the scenes.
TOM: And how did the Air Force help you? What sort of access did you have?
COOPER: We had full access. The Department Of Defense approved the movie.
TOM: Well guys, we all know that where Cameron Crowe goes, there goes music. In what ways did the soundtrack infuse and enthuse as well? Great soundtrack for the film.
STONE: The soundtrack was mostly after the fact. There were a couple of songs that he knew he wanted to put in the movie that I think we heard in advance, but for the most part he likes to bring music in as an element on set. In the middle of shooting scenes he would turn a song on… And we spoke to him privately and told him about songs that affected us on a personal level. He would sometimes have those songs filter into scenes that we were doing, which is really a cool and interesting dynamic to the way he directs. I’m sure anyone who’s worked on his films can tell you that’s an integral part to the process.
TOM: And you have a wonderful supporting cast, with no less than Bill Murray and Alec Baldwin as well. Please tell us those guys are as offbeat and crazy as the characters they play in the film.
COOPER: I was so excited to meet both of them. I know Alec very little and I didn’t know Bill at all, and they both lived up to the hype, or what one would think. Both worked in different ways, yet equally as magical. And by the way, let’s not forget, John Krasinski, Danny McBride and Rachel McAdams also, who were great in the movie.
We have five in-season doubles passes to give away to Aloha courtesy of 20th Century Fox. To be in the running send an email to and tell us the name of Cameron Crowe’s second Tom Cruise film. Winners will be notified by return email: so please include your best postal address and put ‘Aloha’ in the subject line.
Aloha is in cinemas now.
