Penn is mighty in ‘Milk’

“There were challenges in this that were exciting,” the 48-year-old Oscar winner said, sitting alongside his director and several co-stars, at a press conference in New York last week. “Primarily, for me, it started with Gus Van Sant. I think all of us here and any actor with a hunger to make something fantastic wants to work with Gus. So, there’s that, and he gave me Dustin Lance Black’s sensational script and so it seemed like a no-brainer to want to do it. And, of course, then I could lay on top of that all the particular values that this story and Milk’s life have, but that would take a long time.”
In the film, which is already earning rave reviews, Penn plays the iconic title character, who was a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors and California’s first openly gay elected official. Milk was shot to death in 1978, along with Mayor George Moscone (played by Victor Garber) by Dan White (played by Josh Brolin,) a board member who frequently clashed with Milk. Filmed on location in San Francisco, the movie co-stars Denis O’Hare, Alison Pill, James Franco and Emile Hirsch.
Asked how he managed to capture Milk’s essence and portray him so well on-screen, Penn said he studied the 1984 Oscar-winning documentary “The Times of Harvey Milk,” as well as whatever archival footage of the slain politician’s public life he could find.
“[The material was] very helpful,” said Penn.
“I say that a little vaguely, because I believe that [with that] sort of thing, the best way you can use it is to watch it a lot — in the same way you play music all day in the background [without] necessarily thinking about it,” explained the California native, who is the husband of actress Robin Wright and the father of two teen-age children.
“I kept [the real footage] on all the time, and over a period of time the little synapses start to connect and, if you listen carefully, you can hear music in that and you kind of dance with it. That, and then, of course, what Lance wrote. It comes from all directions,” Penn noted.
“The most exciting version of Harvey Milk to me was Harvey Milk. If you see the documentary, the guy is the movie star of that documentary. He is an electric, warm guy,” said Penn. “So, you reach and reach and reach, you never assume you’ll get all the way there. But you figure that with the help of the director and the screenwriter and all the other things in the movie, you can get the spirit of him out there the best you can.”
Penn went on to say the role stuck with him after the film wrapped. However, he admitted he isn’t certain exactly how it might have changed him or seeped into his personality.
“It did stay with me. How? I’m not entirely sure. I haven’t given it a lot of thought,” Penn confided. “When something comes in and you become aware it is there, you leave it alone, so it doesn’t go away. In terms of humanly? One likes to think that they live each day and each person who comes into their life. Directly or indirectly, there’s some kind of outgrowth, hopefully, in some kind of positive direction that I can’t identify.”
The actor also acknowledged how the film, which is set three decades in the past, still resonates today. He finds it especially timely in this election year, given the fact that California voters this month approved Proposition 8, which overturned a court ruling that made gay marriage legal in the state. It is a civil rights issue about which the actor has strong feelings.
“Support for . . . Proposition 8 would be minimally manslaughter,” said Penn. “Because our human history tells us there’s going to be teenage boys who will hang themselves out of a reach for identity they cannot get. If this movie is part of an engine to help reveal that, that’s going to make all of us really happy and proud.”
“Milk” opens in theaters Nov. 26.

Sean Penn Bio:
Born in 1960 in Los Angeles to late actor-director Leo Penn and his wife, actress Eileen Ryan. His younger brother, actor Chris Penn, died in 2006 of an enlarged heart. He has one surviving sibling, a brother, Michael, who is a musician.
Family: Married to pop star Madonna from 1985-89; married current wife, actress Robin Wright, in 1996. He and Wright have two children – Dylan, 17, and Hopper, 15.
Movie roles: “Taps,” “Fast Times at Ridgemont High,” “Bad Boys,” “Colors,” “State of Grace,” “Dead Man Walking,” “She’s So Lovely,” “The Game,” “Sweet and Lowdown,” “21 Grams” and “All the King’s Men.” He won a Best Actor Oscar for his portrayal of the grieving father of a murdered young woman in the Boston-set drama “Mystic River.”
Directorial work: Penn has also helmed the films “Into the Wild,” “The Pledge,” “The Crossing Guard” and “The Indian Runner.”

Madonna’s seal of approval
Filmmaker Gus Van Sant says that when it came time to hire a director of photography for his new movie “Milk,” he once again turned to Harris Savides, the cinematographer he previously worked with on films like “Elephant” and “Finding Forrester.”
Recalling how he first came to know Savides, Van Sant said he liked the DP’s work, but was convinced he should hire him when he heard Madonna wouldn’t work with anyone else.
“She needed Harris,” Van Sant told reporters at a recent news conference with his “Milk” star Sean Penn, Madonna’s ex-husband, sitting by his side. “And I thought, ‘Well, she must be pretty discerning [so] I got to use Madonna’s DP.”
“DPs, ex-husbands,” Penn — who is usually guarded with the media — chimed in, sparking laughter from the entertainment press corps assembled at Manhattan’s Regency Hotel on Nov. 19.