Josh Brolin's Strange Year

The Daily Beast talks with the Man Who Played Dubya about portraying presidents and murderers—and why he'll never work with his wife, Diane Lane.

Josh Brolin doesn’t mind being hated. In fact, playing the heavy has served him well this year. Fresh off a career-making nice-guy turn in the Coens’ No Country For Old Men, Brolin played President Bush in Oliver Stone’s W., and now, he’s appearing as killer Dan White in Gus Van Sant’s Milk. White has a special place in homosexual hell as the man who shot Harvey Milk, the first openly gay major elected official in American history. He also famously pioneered the use of the so-called “Twinkie Defense,” citing his increased consumption of Twinkies and Coca-Cola as evidence of depression.

Van Sant’s film and Brolin’s masterful performance depict White as a struggling, less-than-bright ex-cop who ascends to elected office in San Francisco, only to be foiled by fellow city supervisor Milk and Mayor George Moscone. White’s homophobia and ambition lead him to murder both of them in 1978, a tragedy made all the more poignant here by the joy Penn breathes into his portrayal of Milk.

Brolin’s character here is the outsider—a red meat-eating, heterosexual male caught up in changing times. Brolin opened up to The Daily Beast about his sexual tension with Sean Penn, his “gay” haircut, and the impossibility of working with his wife, Diane Lane.

Why are gay rights not seen as civil rights?

I don’t know. It honestly doesn’t matter to me. Why can’t people just do what they want to do, as long as it’s not hurting anyone? That’s all I care about. The discrimination, I do not get it. I would think that African-Americans would be extremely sensitive to that, knowing that better than anybody. And yet that’s not the case. They voted something like 70 percent for Prop 8. The religious factor came into it.

What was it like working with Sean? He seems so serious.

He’s not. He’s the most gracious actor I’ve ever worked with. Bar none. That dude gets a bad rap and I do not understand it. He doesn’t pander and he gets slammed for it. It’s great being around people like that if you’re a geek like me, who truly—in the most nerdish way—loves to sit down and create something with someone.