Initially, Josh Brolin was a little leery walking the streets of San Francisco during the filming of Milk due to the fact he was playing a man most citizens of San Fran hold in low regard – Dan White. On November 27, 1978 White murdered Supervisor Harvey Milk and Mayor George Moscone in cold blood. Milk and White had butted heads over a number of issues, and White was on the outs with his political constituents. White apparently couldn't control his anger and frustration any more, and took the lives of Milk and Moscone. His defense attorney cited his agitated mental state at the time of the shootings was the result of being manipulated by those at City Hall and was also the result of his intake of a large amount of junk food (dubbed 'The Twinkie Defense').
"I knew that San Francisco had really embraced the fact that this movie was being done and Gus [Van Sant] and Sean [Penn] and all that, but when I went down there…I felt the same way about W. I talked to Oliver [Stone] about maybe needing security and all that because I didn’t want to be some guy like Rush Limbaugh. I was a little scared and I went down there and everybody who I talked to said, 'You’re playing Dan White.' And I was like, 'Yeah.' And they were like, 'That’s so great. We’re so happy you’re involved and so happy you’re doing this movie,'" recalled Brolin.
"My initial reaction in doing the movie wasn’t like, 'God, I’ve got to play this character.' With this movie, it was more, 'I have to be involved in this movie. It’s an important film.' And San Francisco felt the same way, so I got no negativity whatsoever. No, 'Why would you play a guy like that who’s sympathetic? How dare you? He was a monster.' Because he is a monster, you already go into that with that baggage."
Brolin wasn't that familiar with the story before taking on the role of Dan White in Milk. "I was somewhat familiar with the story, not intimately familiar with the story. I had known who Harvey was. I knew about the Twinkie defense. I knew basically what most people know in California. I remember when Harvey died. I was young, I was just 10," said Brolin.
Although Josh Brolin is in high demand in Hollywood – his career's never been hotter – he wasn't the first choice for the role. "I think Matt Damon was supposed to do this role and he had some scheduling problems with Paul Greengrass. Matt and Gus [Van Sant] had known each other for a long time, obviously. Sean mentioned me to Gus and I knew Gus loosely and they sent me the script. I read the script immediately. I cried at the end of the script. I was very moved by it. Then I got the 1984 documentary and watched that with my daughter. Both of us were crying at the end of that. I called Gus and I said, 'Whatever you want to do, I’m in.' Then I found out how much I was being paid and I was a little pissed that it was going to cost me money," laughed Brolin.
During his research, Brolin never focused on whether White was a homophobe. "Personally, I think who cares because I don’t think that was his motive. I think if you look at the relationship, especially in the beginning, between [Harvey Milk] and Dan White, they come from… I mean they’re polar opposites. Dan White was put in there, put in that situation by the Fire Department and by the Police Department to really bring back San Francisco to what it was founded on, this kind of white, super-white, Catholic mentality. It’s an impossibility. You just can’t do it. I don’t care what kind of politician you are. You can’t do it. And the gay and lesbian movement had taken its own life, and the hippie movement and all that. So, you know, he was given an impossible task. Also, he didn’t have the foresight; he didn’t have the wherewithal and the political skills to realize, 'Hey, this is happening right now. It’s going to hit a peak. It will start to bleed into the mainstream, and then I’ll have my time,' and to look for those opportunities. He just got more frustrated and more frustrated."
"He was the big fish in the small pond in his district, then he was suddenly the very small fish in a huge sea of City Hall and he go more frustrated, but I think he tried to do the right thing," explained Brolin. "That’s when I started seeing the human. He tried to. He was frustrated because he wanted more money and $9,600 a year, that’s nothing. He had the kids and the wife and all that and then at Pier 39, he started a little chip stand where he was trying to make more money. And then he tried to resign and then they wouldn’t let him resign. They were saying, 'Get back in there. You have to do this for us. You are the great white hope.' And then Mayor Moscone wouldn’t take him back in. So, I understand on a very human, basic level when all your power is taken away, and you’re sitting there and your legacy is just nothing, it’s dirt, with your family, with your friends, with your community, everything, and you think the only tangible thing I can do, the only garnering of power that I have left is to grab a gun, load the gun, point the gun, shoot the gun, kill the person, cause and effect. That’s the only tangible thing I can imagine at that moment. I don’t excuse it obviously, but I understand that desperation."
Asked how the past year has been with the Oscar-winning No Country for Old Men and the buzz surrounding his performance in Oliver Stone's W, Brolin jokingly replied, "Awful. I would never want to do it again. No, it’s been good. It’s been really good. What’s great about it is the filmmakers. The filmmakers can really make a difference and I love who these people are because what’s the through-line between Oliver and Gus and the Coens and Woody Allen and all these people is because they’re all nerds, man. They love filmmaking. They love storytelling and I do too. They’re not about the ego; they’re not about the status of it. They just want final cut on their movies because they want to be totally – which I have so much respect for – they want to be totally responsible for the stories that they tell."
Page 2: On Those Jonah Hex Rumors
