James Franco has always come across as the kind of man to effortlessly make the ladies swoon with his dark and mysterious sex appeal. He has at least followed this template since 2001, after the unwaivering label of a teenage heartthrob was established with his starring role as the brooding James Dean in a made-for-TV movie.

But it seems that Franco is loosening himself up a bit. Drifting through 2008’s Pineapple Express in a haze of pot smoke, Franco’s followers began to see just how versatile the actor could be.

And now, donning a truly ’70s Burt Reynolds ‘stache, Franco took on his most audacious challenge to date-portraying an openly gay man who holds an important position in human rights history. In Milk, Franco plays Scott Smith, the longtime lover of Harvey Milk (Sean Penn), the first gay mayor who was murdered in San Francisco in 1978.

Franco spoke with The Chronicle about his new film, revealing his thoughts on playing a historical character, the passing of Proposition 8 and what it was like shooting love scenes with Sean Penn.

The Chronicle: After starring in films like ‘Pineapple Express’ and ‘Spiderman,’ ‘Milk’ is much different than your past work. What did you do to prepare for a role like this?

James Franco: This film is much different than what I’ve done before because it has such an important message, but it’s also telling the life of a figure who meant so much to a lot of people. So I felt like it was a huge responsibility to get it right. I do a lot of preparation on all my films. I went to director Rob Ebstein, who had done a documentary on Harvey Milk before, to see if he had any footage that was never used. He went into his vault and found this old reel of film that had an interview with Scott Smith from 30 years ago that nobody had seen in all that time. That was like a gold mine for me.

Now that California has passed Proposition 8, do you wish that ‘Milk’ had been released before the election?

I voted absentee in California and voted “No” on Proposition 8. But somehow it passed, although it was very close. Sadly, I didn’t know much about Harvey Milk growing up, and I think a lot of people don’t know about him that should. That’s one of the great things about this movie-it’ll raise the awareness of who he was and what he did for the gay community. Obviously Harvey Milk was fighting for gay rights, but his example shows that he can be inspirational for everyone. He helped to overturn Proposition 6, which would have kept gay teachers from teaching in schools. The odds were initially against him at 60 to 30, but because Harvey and others went against it, those odds were changed. What I got from being a part of this movie is, it inspired me to rise against any sort of discrimination.

What impact has playing Scott Smith and portraying the historical story of Harvey Milk had on you?

It’s really sad that I didn’t know anything about Harvey Milk, and I wish that people did teach more about who he was. Since his death, a lot of changes for the better have been made. Just looking back, [the way] gay lifestyles have been portrayed in the movies has changed. When I was growing up in the ’80s, in mainstream movies people could call someone a “fag” and it was used freely as a joke. But nowadays, you don’t really find that anymore. But when Proposition 8 was passed, it still shows that change still needs to be made. One of the things that Harvey’s examples show is that change doesn’t just roll in and happen miraculously. It takes people to stand up and really make any sort of change happen.

Was there any discomfort kissing and doing sex scenes with Sean Penn?

It was a new thing for both of us, I think, but we both knew it was coming. It was in the script, but there wasn’t a ton of discussion about it. I know when I have kissing scenes or a love scene with female actors you don’t really rehearse. It wouldn’t really fly if one of my female costars said, “Hey, we should go practice this love scene in my hotel room.” So when the time comes, you just do it and that’s really it. We didn’t really discuss it, like to Sean, “Hey, you’re a really good kisser.”

“Milk” hits theaters on Nov. 26 and stars Sean Penn and James Franco.