Actor James Franco Comes Clean About Kissing Sean Penn
In the upcoming drama Milk (out in December), James Franco kisses Sean Penn.
Penn plays Harvey Milk, the country’s first openly gay elected official, a San Francisco city supervisor who was assassinated in 1978. Franco plays Scott Smith, one of his boyfriends.
“It wasn’t twelve hours, but it certainly felt like it,” Franco tells September’s GQ of the lip-lock. “The first kiss of the movie was out on Haight Street, with, like, 200 people watching, outside.
“It was a crane shot — I’m sure in the end it will be a really cool shot, but it starts close and then it takes maybe a minute,” he says. “That’s a long time on film with everybody watching and, like, a fake mustache getting in your mouth.”
Referring to Penn’s character in Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Franco jokes the kiss “was long enough that you couldn’t help thinking, ‘Oh, my God, I’m kissing Spicoli.’”
