In "Milk," Sean Penn plays the politician who was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, becoming the first openly gay man to be voted into public office in America.

The drama also stars Josh Brolin as Dan White, the San Francisco supervisor who assassinated Milk and San Francisco Mayor George Moscone in 1978. "You have to find the humanity in the person," Brolin said. "People might perceive a person to be evil. But you know there is more to the person than that."

Brolin said he prepared to play White by asking himself a series of hypothetical questions.

"You go, ‘What led him to the moment to make the decisions he made? What led him to that moment where he put the bullets in his vest and decided to go out and kill four people?’ He only accomplished half of what he set to accomplish. But he did end up killing two people," Brolin said. "To me, that is an amazing moment."

milk

Cast: Sean Penn, Allison Pill, Josh Brolin, James Franco

Director: Gus Van Sant

Rating: R for language, some sexual content and brief violence.

Theater: Ragtag

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