Sean Penn asked for more gay sex scenes to be written into the script of his latest motion picture, Milk.

James Franco, who stars with the actor in the biopic, which depicts the life of California’s first openly gay elected official Harvey Milk, was surprised when he found that the script had been rewritten to include more intimate same-sex encounters.

“In the original script I read, there was only one real kissing scene. A month after (Gus Van Sant) asked me to do it, they sent me another script, and on page five there was a full-on love scene. And I was like, ‘Gus, what the heck?’ He says, ‘Well, it was Sean’s idea.’”