Sean Penn at Milk premiere in LA

Actor Sean Penn walked the red carpet for the Los Angeles premiere of his new film Milk. Penn plays the lead in Milk, a movie that profiles the personal life, political career and assassination of San Francisco City Supervisor Harvey Milk. When he was elected to San Francisco's Board of Supervisors in 1977, Milk was the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in the United States. The following year, both he and San Francisco Mayor George Moscone were shot dead by an angry political opponent, Dan White. But the soft-spoken actor did not make many stops to speak to the press as he and his wife, Robin Wright Penn, made their way into the cinema. It was up to Josh Brolin who plays Milk's assassin to do the talking. He said: "It was a hard role to play. Only because it's a guy who's so unlikable, you know. He starts out so likable, and at the same time you see this extreme place, the extreme measures that he resorted to." Co-star James Franco, who played Milk's much younger boyfriend Scott Smith, said he learnt a lot from Penn and the director Gus Van Sant. He added: "Well working with Gus Van Sant and Sean Penn you can't help but learn a thing or two, I would hope. It was an amazing experience."

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ITN | November 14, 2008

Tags:. .dan white. .george moscone. .guy. .UK News. .francisco board