FILM · 2008 · USA
Milk
22 archived facts 5 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
All facts (22)
- #001
The Castro Camera store used as a filming location was the actual shop where Harvey Milk's business once stood. At the time of shooting in mid-2008, the space housed a gift shop called "Given"; the film crew worked with the gift shop's owner to recreate the interior look of Milk's camera store and restored it to its 2008 appearance after filming.
- #002
The real Charles White was on the film set during the shooting of the scene in which Dan White's son Charles is baptized.
- #003
Thousands of people agreed to appear as extras in the film for free.
- #004
The apartment used in the film is the real apartment where Harvey Milk lived in San Francisco's Lower Haight.
- #005
In 2016, Cleve Jones, a guest on National Public Radio's "Fresh Air," told interviewer Terry Gross that a few weeks before filming began on Milk, he and Emile Hirsch (who plays him in the film) met and began spending time together so that Hirsch could base his performance on the real Jones: "I need to show him my neighborhoods and where I lived. We ate together. We became friends. And it's a strange feeling to know that. You're being watched by an actor who's going to play you, and I have to say, I noticed that when we were walking around the city I suddenly started trying to correct the situation. So I took it back and I made spaghetti and I said, you know, I'm a big old queen, but I'm not a cartoon, and you'd better get that right. He did, and I loved the film."
- #006
According to Josh Brolin, the scene in which Dan White looks out the window in his underwear in a frightened state was not scripted that way; it was simply the result of the actor and director trying different things to convey White's state of paranoia.
- #007
Denis O'Hare, who plays anti-gay Senator John Briggs in the film, is himself openly gay in real life.
- #008
At the end of the film, footage of the actors dressed as their characters is replaced by photographs of the real people they portray. Many of these photographs were taken by photographer Daniel Nicoletta, who is played in the film by Lucas Grabeel.
- #009
The last public appearance of Harvey Milk's life was attending a San Francisco Opera performance of Puccini's "Tosca," featuring the legendary Italian soprano Magda Olivero, on Saturday, November 25, 1978, two days before he was killed. Not only is this event depicted in the film, but the filmmakers chose to use "Tosca" for all the opera music heard in the film in honor of that appearance.
- #010
Some of the clothes Sean Penn wears in the film were borrowed from Harvey's friend Gilbert Baker. Gilbert Baker is famous for creating the Rainbow Flag, the symbol of the LGBTQ+ community. The clothes were another authentic historical artifact added to the film.
- #011
Harvey Milk was 48 years old when he was killed in 1978. Sean Penn was 48 years old when the film was released.
- #012
With this film, Sean Penn became only the ninth actor to win two Oscars in the Best Actor category.
- #013
Chris Evans auditioned for the role of Scott Smith but lost out to James Franco.
- #014
When Gus Van Sant was planning a biography of Milk in the early '90s, he offered the role of Cleve Jones to River Phoenix, with whom he had worked on My Own Private Idaho (1991).
- #015
Milk was deliberately released two weeks before California's Proposition 8 vote.
- #016
Victor Garber is openly gay. Jonathan Moscone, the son of George Moscone and a theater director, came out as gay in 1998 during a ceremony held for his father and Harvey Milk.
- #017
The film made Roger Ebert's year-end list of the 20 best films of 2008. Ebert did not rank his picks that year, opting instead for an alphabetical list. He later said the film was the most deserving of the Best Picture Oscar nominees.
- #018
Bradley Cooper auditioned for the role of Scott Smith.
- #019
During a July 2008 interview with the Orange County Register about Pineapple Express (2008), the interviewer told Seth Rogen and James Franco that he had prepared for the interview by watching the stoner comedy classic Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982) the night before. When he asked Rogen and Franco whether they had prepared the same way before making Pineapple Express, Franco said he had prepared by making love to Spicoli (a reference to having made Milk (2008), in which he and Sean Penn played lovers).
- #020
Cleve Jones, played by Emile Hirsch in this film, later became the subject of When We Rise (2017), in which he was played by Austin P. McKenzie and Guy Pearce. That series was also written by Dustin Lance Black and produced by Gus Van Sant.
- #021
As of 2025, it contains Josh Brolin's only Oscar-nominated performance.
- #022
Matt Damon was originally cast as Dan White. He had to step back due to a scheduling conflict with Green Zone (2010).
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