Mesa Legend

Issue date: 12/9/08 Section: Features

Media Credit: Photo courtesy of Focus Features Actor James Franco stars as gay rights activist Scott Smith in Gus Van Sant's "Milk."

He may be best known from his role as comic book character Harry Osborne in the "Spiderman" trilogy or as Saul Silver from "Pinenapple Express" but you will soon recognize him for his outstanding performance as Scott Smith, in Focus Features' new film, "Milk".

Released in theaters on Nov. 27, it is the story of California's first openly gay elected official, Harvey Milk. Franco's character, Scott Smith plays opposite Sean Penn as Harvey Milk's longtime love interest.

Q: Did making this film give you any new perspectives regarding the gay community?

A: I think I believed in a lot of the issues presented in the movie already but it might have just reinforced them for me. I guess it just inspired me to help fight for civil rights for whomever.

A lot of Harvey Milk's fight was for gay rights, but I think his example shows that civil rights are for everyone.

With Proposition Eight, I see it as something that isolates one group and that you can't have the same rights as everybody else, and to me that is just wrong, I don't care who the group is. I think what I got from being a part of this movie is to show America to fight against that kind of discrimination whoever the group may be.

Q: Since this is a different type of film from your previous work, how did you prepare for your role as Scott Smith?

A: I guess it was different because it has such an important message and also it is the life of a figure that meant so much to a lot of people. I felt a big responsibility to get it right. On this movie, I guess there were two levels to the research: I had to research the time and place of my specific character.

I was portraying a real person, Scott Smith, who was Harvey Milk's partner for four years, the longest relationship he ever had. Scott was there for a lot of big moments in Milk's life, and then after Harvey Milk was assassinated he was one of the main people who carried on the legacy of Harvey Milk.

Scott was actually called the "Widow Milk" after Harvey died.

I asked the director if there was any old footage that didn't make it into the movie and he found this old reel of film that had an interview with Scott Smith from 30 years ago that nobody had seen and he transferred it to DVD for me. That was like a gold mine.

Continued...

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