From Inside Milk

Howard Rosenman spends some time with Sean Penn, a nude James Franco and Gus Van Sant when he got a small part in Milk, regrets the kugel:

James Franco, indeed, plays part of the scene nude. I (David Goodstein) have a grand and luxurious home with an indoor pool. James, who plays Harvey’s boyfriend, jumps into the pool nude and then has an argument with me‚Ķnude. I dare say, it was extremely mind-blowing.

That first day on the set, I was dressed in a very expensive suit and monogrammed shirt and tie and vest that Danny Glicker, the wonderfully funny and talented costume designer, had built for me. Gus decided I should do a bit of “business,‚Äù so he gave me a pool skimmer. He then suggested I wear a bathing suit. I thought I was going to die. ‚ÄúI can‚Äôt say no‚ĶI have to be a pro and go with this‚Ķbut oy vey…I‚Äôm not tan enough‚Ķand all that kugel‚Ķ‚Äù

More after the jump.

With all this going on, Sean entered, wearing a long, curly brown wig and brown contact lenses, the spitting image of the Jewish hippie-ish Harvey Milk: sexy, handsome, and dangerous. He glanced at me and immediately discerned the terror in my eyes. Very quietly, practically soto voce, he leaned into me:

“You have nothing to worry about. I’ve only played gay once in my life and that was in Albert Innaurato’s The Transformation of Benno Blimpie and that was on the stage when I was really young. I’ve never played gay on screen. So here’s the deal: You have my back and I have your back and we’ll both get through this together.” His generosity was enormously inspiring and I totally relaxed. All my scenes were with the prodigiously talented Stephen Spinella (Tony Kushner wrote “Angels In America” specifically for him) and Stephen both calmed me and taught me so much.

Producer morphs into actor.  A great read.