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Brolin candid about his role in 'Milk'
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Josh Brolin
(This is the third in a series of articles on the film Milk.)
Last year was the “mustache” year for man’s man Josh Brolin, but this year, it’s all about politics.
Brolin, fresh off his stint in W, takes on another “anti-hero” in the Gus Van Sant film, Milk, playing beleaguered San Francisco Supervisor Dan White. White shot and killed the city’s mayor, George Moscone, and rising politico Harvey Milk in November, 1978.
“You just study the people,” Brolin says of how he tried to creatively step into White’s shoes. “Having done a lot of theater, I’ve never really had to put myself in a position where you had to make decisions based on a real person. ‘Dubya' was different. With Dan, I feel like I had to nail something.”
The film opens Nov. 26 in the Bay Area.
With Sean Penn headlining, the movie has already created a ripple effect in the industry and is certain to capture the hearts of locals who lived through Milk’s tragedy—and those today, suddenly inspired by his remarkable spirit and nuanced ways of moving the Gay Civil Rights movement forward.
The movie, which was filmed on location last year, also stars James Franco, Emile Hirsch, Alison Pill and Diego Luna.
“It’s a sad character to me,” Brolin says of White. “It sounds so pretentious but when you re-humanize a character, somebody who has done something so evil that they resort to the incredible violence he resorted to, it’s tough, because there is some kind of identification to all of us that we are all capable of anything at any given time.”
Of Harvey Milk, he says the activist "came across many obstacles, which is the case for any gay man now. There’s an irony—Prop 8 being what is now and Prop 6 being what is back then."
In 1978, the infamous Proposition 6, (The Briggs Initiative) sought to terminate homosexual teachers in California. Proposition 8, which was designed to ban same-sex marriages, surprised the state—and the nation—when it passed on Election Day of this year. Not one to remain defeated—especially when it comes to civil rights—the LGBT community, and its supporters, organized hundreds of protests around the country, particularly drawing attention to the millions of dollars the Mormon Church raised to help fund Prop 8’s passing.
“Obstacles are OK to me,” Brolin says of the dilemma today. “You know, Anita Bryant and all these guys … when you resort to the violence that the Dan White resorted to, that’s something else. It’s a very sad moment. I see [White] as being an incredibly frustrated guy.
"It’s a very sad moment when somebody feels the only resort is tangible," he adds. "That ‘s how I saw that moment [for Dan White]: 'If I do this, this will happen.'"
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