Controversial movie spotlighting Hawaii’s history gets new cast, name

A movie criticized for casting a Caucasian actor as a Native Hawaiian war hero has been recast and renamed.

The independent film “Enemy Within,” formerly “Ni‘ihau,” is scheduled to open at select theaters this month with a New Zealand actor of Tongan and Samoan ancestry in the lead role instead of actor Zach McGowan.

Joe Naufahu, who had sent in an audition tape during the original casting of the film, will replace McGowan.

Also in the cast is Beulah Koale, a New Zealand-born actor of Samoan descent who is a regular on “Hawaii Five-0.”

“Enemy Within” is the story of a Japanese pilot who crash-lands on Niihau in late 1941 and is treated with traditional Hawaiian hospitality until the locals discover he was part of the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor.

McGowan, whose credits include television shows “The 100,” “Black Sails” and “Shameless,” was originally cast to play Benehakaka “Ben” Kanahele, the man who helped quell the Niihau crisis, but his casting was roundly denounced as the latest example of Hollywood “whitewashing” — the practice of casting Caucasian actors as nonwhite characters.

Local officials were also disappointed the movie was shot in Malaysia rather than Hawaii.

In an interview in Deadline Hollywood, producer Ken Petrie of 27 Ten Productions said the backlash caught him by surprise, so “we stopped and we listened.”

“It was always important to us that we were respectful to the true story, told in an honest way. I made the decision that we had to push the shoot a couple of weeks and give the production time to do what was right for everybody involved,” he told the online entertainment news outlet.

Petrie said his cast and crew were verbally assaulted after casting McGowan, and representatives of the actor said he received threatening phone calls, prompting him to step away from the project. Actor Xander Berkeley from “The Walking Dead” also left the cast.

Naufahu is a former professional rugby player who portrayed Dothraki leader Khal Moro in Season 6 of the hit HBO series “Game of Thrones.” The 41-year-old actor has been quoted as saying his grandparents are from Tonga, Samoa, Portugal and Germany.

Replacing McGowan with Naufahu came about quickly, “but we think we have made a more appropriate decision for the film,” Petrie told Deadline Hollywood.

“Enemy Within” was filmed at the Pinewood Iskander Malaysia Studios in the summer of 2017. According to Petrie, the production team worked with cultural consultants to help capture rural life on Niihau at the time the story is set.

State Film Commissioner Donne Dawson said it was too bad the film was not shot in Hawaii.

“We would have been helpful,” she said of the Hawaii Film Office. “We were ready, willing and able to assist them.”

While a handful of the main Polynesian roles were taken by New Zealand actors, at least one was Hawaiian: Kanoa Goo, who plays Hawila Kaleohano.

Born and raised in Hawaii, Goo appeared in a number of local productions on Oahu, graduated from Punahou School and went to college at New York University.

After the film was finished, a special invitation- only screening was held at the Waimea Theater for people from Niihau living on Kauai.

“Enemy Within” — not to be confused with the new NBC drama series “The Enemy Within” — is rated PG-13 and opens April 19 at select theaters across the U.S. and the United Kingdom.

Kailua Cinemas confirmed on its Facebook page that it would be showing the movie starting April 19.