Beauty)— along with a research crew including
Rainbow Flag creator Gilbert Baker and Milk
speechwriter (and The Towering Inferno scribe)
Frank Robinson. The strong supporting cast
features Golden Globe winner James Franco
(James Dean) as boyfriend Scott Smith, Diego
Luna (Y Tu Mamá También) as boyfriend Jack
Lira, Josh Brolin (No Country for Old Men) as
assassin Dan White, Emile Hirsch (into the Wiki)
as AIDS Memorial Quilt creator Cleve Jones,
Emmy nominee Victor Garber (Alias) as Mayor
George Moscone, Tony winner Denis O’Hare
(Take Me Out) as state Sen. John Briggs, Tony
winner Stephen Spinella (Angels in America)
as rival Rick Stokes and Eric Stoltz (Singles) as
future City Supervisor Tom Ammiano.
Milk, which opens Nov. 26, represents a major
milestone in the esteemed career of 56-year-old
Van Sant. Having concentrated on experimental
indies since the turn of the millennium—from
2OO2’s Gerry through 2OO7’s Paranoid Park— he’s
poised to receive his widest mainstream attention
since 1997’s Good Will Hunting, which earned him
an Oscar nomination and scored statues for actor
Robin Williams as well as first-time screenwriters
Matt Damon and Ben Affleck.
It’s also Van Sant’s first stab at explicitly gay
subject matter—not counting the homoerotic sub
text that permeates the bulk of his oeuvre— since
1993’s Even Cowgirls Get the Blues. Tixlay’s cin
ematic landscape is much different, particularly
after the critical and commercial success of 2OO5’s
Brokeback Mountain— a project to which his name
was once attached, incidentally.
Portlanders will be among the first to see Milk
when Van Sant hosts a gala premiere Nov. 14
benefiting Outside In, as he did for 2003’s Elephant,
which had just won the prestigious Palme d’Or
at the Cannes Film Festival. The social service
agency, celebrating its 40th anniversary, has
helped thousands of homeless youth leave the
streets; according to its Web site, 30 percent of
these kids are sexual minorities whose families
can’t “manage the many complexities of a
developing sexual/gender identity outside of the
norm. Most often youth believe they will better
their lives when they go to the street.”
Van Sant spoke with Just Out about how
much things have—and haven’t—changed in
both movies and politics through the years.
POLITICIAN’S WORDS
RING TRUE TO THIS
“There is a major difference be
tween a friend [in office] and
a gay person in offioe. It’s not
enough just to have friends rep
resent us, no matter how good
those friends may be. We must
give people the chance to judge
us by our own leaders and our
own legislators.”
“I have never considered myself
a candidate. I have always considered myself part of a movement, part of
a candidacy.”
“I stand for all those who feel that the government no longer understands
the individual and no longer respects individual rights.”
“I understand the responsibility of being gay.... I was elected by the peo
ple of this district, but I also have a responsibility to gays—not just in this
city, but elsewhere.”
“On the Statue of Liberty it says: ‘Give me your tired, your poor, your
huddled masses yearning to be free.’ In the Declaration of Independence
it is written: ‘All men are created equal and they are endowed with certain
inalienable rights.’ And in our national anthem it says: *Oh, say does that
star-spangled banner yet wave o’er the land of the free.’
“For...all the bigots out there: That’s what America is. No matter how
hard you try, you cannot erase those words from the Declaration of In
dependence. No matter how hard you try, you cannot chip those words
from off the base of the Statue of Liberty. And no matter how hard you
try, you cannot sing The Star-Spangled Banner* without those words.
“That’s what America is. Love it or leave it.”
“If a bullet should enter my brain, let that bullet destroy every closet
door.”
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Jim Radosta: What first motivated you to tell
Harvey Milk’s story, and how long has this proj
ect been in the works?
Gus Van Sant: I had first heard about it
through Rob Epstein, who made the documentary,
and the [1982 Randy Shi Its] book The Mayor of
Castro Street had even predated the documentary.
It was a project that Oliver Stone [/FKj was
going to do but they decided not to do. So 1
worked on that for a little while. 1 knew about
Harvey somewhat but not, like, the details. So I
learned a lot during that period preparing for tak
ing over for Oliver.
There was a script that 1 thought needed some
work and [rhe studio] wanted to go ahead with,
so we parted ways because they wanted to get it
in production and 1 didn’t think it was the right
thing. So it fell apart after that [in 1993].
There was another screenplay 1 think in ’95
that 1 wrote up here in Portland, and then when
1 handed it in, 1 think they forgot why they asked
me to write it. It was during a period when To
Die For had just come out, and also I’m sure they
didn't like the screenplay. The screenplay was like
a Charlie Kaufman [Being John Malkovich] screen
play. It was really, really wild. So they passed on
that, and after that years went by.
Then Lance [Black] just materialized. 1 knew
he was writing a musical about Cleve Jones with
a friend of his. Cleve Jones was one of Harvey’s
street lieutenants who would help with the march
es and was one of his advisers. He was younger; he
was about 20 at the time. 1 was always in touch
with him originally when I researched the project;
I stayed at Cleve's house. I was through the years
always in touch with Cleve; he was the one that I
would always send the script to, to get his OK for
accuracy. He called and he said that Lance had
written a screenplay about Harvey now that the
musical about Cleve was no longer happening.
JR: How does his screenplay differ from the
one you had in the mid-1990s?
GVS: There were different drafts written by
David Franzoni [Gladiator], who was a well-known
screenwriter in Hollywixxl, and Oliver had devel
oped these screenplays. 1 read maybe one or two
of them. They were still in the process of writing
Continued on Page 22
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