Sean Penn says he couldn’t play Harvey Milk today

“It couldn’t happen like that anymore, nowadays.”

In 2008, Sean Penn plays Harvey Milk in an eponymous biopic directed by Gus Van Sant. A feature film which tells both the story of the man who was the first elected and openly gay politician in the United States and also the History, that of the civil rights movement for the LGBTQ+ community in the 70s. Activism , struggle and campaign, Harvey Milk depicts through the portrait of a murdered martyr, the strength of a minority that does not give up in the face of often violent repression, and ends up obtaining a solid administrative spokesperson. With Diego Luna, James Franco and Josh Brolin, Harvey Milk is a public and critical success, winner of two Oscars: that of best screenplay and best actor for Sean Penn.

While the American was highly acclaimed for his performance, sixteen years later he admits that it would be unthinkable for him to reprise the role if the film had been released recently. In an interview for the New York Timeshe stated :

“No, it couldn’t be like that anymore these days. We live in a time of enormous change. It’s a timid and simple practice towards the human imagination.”

While today, Hollywood aims to reflect an inclusive society by offering more queer roles to personalities belonging to the LGBTQ+ community – long invisible – the question of gay characters played by homosexual actors or actresses is debated. To make it more authentic? Because it is already difficult for this community to find a place in the system? The arguments in this favor are numerous. Just like those against.

Last January, the American LGBTQ+ magazine, OUT, has brought together a list of heterosexual actors and those who have played gay roles, as well as their comments. For Darren Criss, interpreter of Andrew Cunanan, in American Crime Story: The Assassination of Gianni Versace and Blaine Anderson, a gay teenager in the series Glee, the roles queersIt’s over : “I want to make sure I’m not yet another heterosexual man taking on the role of a gay man.”

And just as Sean Penn considers that Harvey Milk would be made today without him, Tom Hanks revealed in 2022 to New York Times that Philadelphia – 1993 film in which he plays a homosexual suffering from AIDS, alongside Antonio Banderas – could not be done in the same way:

“Could a straight man do what I did in Philadelphiatoday? No, and that’s a good thing!”

Tom Hanks Says He Couldn’t Play Gay Philadelphia Character Today

Looking back, Sean Penn considers Harvey Milk as his last happy project: “I spent fifteen unhappy years on the sets. Milk was the last time I had a good time.” While acting was no longer as much of a passion as before, the actor revealed that his desire for cinema returned when Dakota Johnson sent him the script for Daddio :

“I felt that it could be a pleasant experience and that it would matter to me, perhaps more than in the past.”

Behind closed doors on four wheels, Dakota Johnson plays the passenger in Sean Penn’s taxi and the two talk until the end of the night. For the moment, the film does not have a release date in France.

Daddio: Dakota Johnson gets into Sean Penn’s taxi (trailer)