Yet another white guy cast in a non-white starring role

I am going to go out on a ledge and guess there were plenty of actors who could play a physically attractive Pacific Islander. Apparently Hollywood can't find one.

Some guy named Zach McGowan has been cast as Hawaiian native Benehakaka Ben Kanahele in an upcoming WWII film entitled Niihau. Apparently Ol' Ben Kanahele was not a blue-eyed, white skinned person of non-Hawaiian origin.

Via Variety:

Actor Zach McGowan has been cast as Hawaiian native Benehakaka Ben Kanahele in the upcoming WWII film Niihau, reigniting the whitewashing controversy in Hollywood where Asian/Pacific Islanders are portrayed by white actors.

The film chronicles the true story of the Niihau Incident, in which Kanahele rescued Shigenori Nishikaichi, an Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service pilot who participated in the bombing of Pearl Harbor, after he crashed his plane onto the Hawaii island of Niihau. After Nishikaichi escaped and banded with three local Japanese to terrorize American locals, Kanahele and his wife ultimately killed him. Kanahele, who was shot by Nishikaichi, was later hailed by the U.S. government as a hero for helping prevent a takeover on the island. The incident as well as systemic racism against Asian Americans at the time prompted President Franklin D. Roosevelt to issue an executive order placing thousands of Japanese-Americans in internment camps, widely regarded as one of the darkest hours in U.S. history.

McGowan, who has appeared in Shameless and Black Sails as English pirate Charles Vane, is Caucasian with brown hair and blue eyes. Kanahele was a native Hawaiian with brown skin and dark hair. McGowans casting is the latest in a series of whitewashed roles.