DUSTIN Lance Black talks about writing the screenplay for Bafta-nominated biopic Milk and why the life, career and eventual assassination of Harvey Milk – the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in San Francisco in the ’70s – proved to be such an inspiration to him…

Q. Can you describe the first time you experienced Harvey Milk’s story?
Dustin Lance Black: I think it was 1990 maybe. My step-dad had just moved us from San Antonio, Texas… he was an Army guy. We were also like a devout Mormon family at the time. So, it was this very, very conservative area. I knew that I was a gay kid very early on, but you don’t come out. There’s not such a thing in San Antonio and definitely not in the Mormon church, or the military. So, when I got to the Bay area I got into the theatre and was really very, very lucky that there was this theatre director who, for whatever reason, told a little group of us the story of an out gay man. I thought it was insane. I thought: “Why would someone willingly do that?” I thought he must be nuts.

But he said: “Oh no, this guy is actually beloved by his city and was elected to public office.” You could just tell by the way the guy told the story that he had a lot of pride in it. This was well over a decade after the assassination. The story itself was very hopeful. The way the guy talked about it, and I got the sense he was coming out to me in that moment too, was also really hopeful. I think it was the first time that I knew that I didn’t have to be completey ashamed of who I was – that there was a future, and that you could potentially live truthfully. Those were some really new ideas for me, so it was a really transformative moment. Closeting for adolescent kids is really dangerous, I think, because it really shuts you down emotionally and you stop developing.

Q. How difficult was it to contain the Milk story into such a compact period – or to succeed where other screenplay attempts had failed?
Dustin Lance Black: That was the challenge. It was a lot of work but it was clear to me that the politics was the thing I’d focus on in order to narrow the story down. I wanted to go deep enough into that story so that you actually cared about these people. So, it’s tough because you’re losing things you care so much about. Harvey had a fascinating adolescence, because he was gay from such an early age. He was going to the opera in San Francisco and having gay rendezvous’ on balconies at a time when people weren’t doing that. He had a successful career in the Navy, a successful career as a teacher, as a stock analyst and as a producer on Broadway… so there’s all those fantastic stories there, as well as stories after he died. There’s the story of the trial of Dan White and the twinky defence, which exposes more homophobia than even the murder. But you just can’t do all of it. That’s the difficult part – knowing that you’re not telling some fantastic pieces of his life. And you hope that you’re still understanding the man with the limited time we’ve chosen.

Q. Would you perhaps like to revisit that story… maybe on television, or as part of a mini-series?
Dustin Lance Black: I think that would be cool. The book, The Mayor of Castro Street, is such a fantastic journalistic trip through his life that I think it would make a very good mini-series. It would be different enough from this movie to be successful, so I think that would be a great idea. There are so many great characters as well.

Q. With Milk, though, you do manage to find a nice balance between the politics and the humour in the man’s life. Was that tough?
Dustin Lance Black: Well, the fortunate thing about the politics of Harvey Milk is that they’re gay politics and gay politics aren’t really about finance or party politics. They’re the politics of the bedroom, of love, of companionship and it’s personal. So, even though they’re arguing something that is very political – like the right to keep your job or trying to get a person elected to a medium-sized position in San Francisco – it’s all about their ability to have the right to be able to be in love with the person they want to be in love with.

Q. Were you surprised by how much you were embraced by the San Francisco community?
Dustin Lance Black: Well, it’s a San Francisco story. It wasn’t just Harvey that was taken. It was Mayor George Moscone, who was kind of the mayor who represented the transition of San Francisco politics from kind of conservative old school to this new, embracing open San Francisco that we know today. So, there was a lot of fondness for Moscone and Milk – and they were both taken from that city. So, I think people were thrilled to see they were going to be honoured in this way.

Q. Do you think the message of tolerance that Harvey promoted is still getting through today, in regards to the latest election victories?
Dustin Lance Black: Yeah, but I think it goes beyond tolerance. I think the message was acceptance. Tolerance is something you don’t like, but put up with. But I think Harvey’s message was: “Hey, we’re your brothers, we’re your sisters, we’re your family and we should be accepted, loved and included in all of the same rights that your fellow citizens enjoy.” I think it became painfully apparent on November 4 in California that we weren’t quite there yet and there’s still more work to be done to introduce the gay community to the other communities, who are also fighting for their rights.

Like Harvey Milk said: “Once you get to know us, you realise that all those things you might have heard aren’t true. Gay and lesbian people aren’t out to hurt your children or destroy your family.” So, I think in that way we need this story again right now.

Q. How true to his speeches did you stay in your screenplay? Or did you take artistic licence?
Dustin Lance Black: You have to in some ways. Those speeches were great, but they were very long. So, if you just trimmed then you’re still losing the feeling of the truth behind them, so you have to kind of add things that say it in a different way. But as much as possible, I think 70% of them are accurate, including the recorded will. The entire beginning is from the actual will. But then you have to construct things that help tell that same story. I feel like they’re very, very honest to who he was and what he was trying to say, but they’re just cut down versions. The one that he gives in front of City Hall, at the gay parade, is really, really accurate. It was just a fantastic speech. It’s trimmed down but there’s no reason to change anything. It’s pure Harvey Milk.

Read our review of Milk

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