Thomas Jane of ‘Hung’ on experimenting with men (and sandwiches)

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Given a choice with Thomas Jane, we’d play touch football. But it seems the ‘Hung’ star knows one of our other favorite games: actors discussing fluid sexuality!

Jane, who plays a boudoir hired gun on the HBO comedy, recently sat down with the Los Angeles Times to discuss the road ahead for his character -- and the road he’s personally traveled, sprinkled with some same-sex action.

‘You know, when I was a kid out here in L.A., I was homeless, I didn’t have any money and I was living in my car. I was 18. I wasn’t averse to going down to Santa Monica Boulevard and letting a guy buy me a sandwich. Know what I mean?’ he said.

We can guess! We’d also imagine Jane is being so candid about his past because of certain missteps in the past, specifically when it comes to the gay community.

Jane got some heat in the gay community for pooh-poohing the suggestion that his male prostitute character would make his services available to men. ‘I’ve always said, the year that Ray ends up with a penis in his mouth is the last year of the show.’

But nevermind that: ‘I got a chance to explain myself a little further,’ he says, ‘and I think people respected the explanation that I gave.’ Back to those Santa Monica Boulevard gents and Subway shops.

‘For me, being a young artist and broke in Los Angeles, I was exploring my sexual identity. And probably because of my middle-class, white, blue-collar upbringing, I would have never had the opportunity to confront some of my own fears and prejudices had I not been hungry enough to be forced to challenge myself in that way,’ he said.

Though he says he chooses now to be heterosexual because that’s what his DNA and his nurture tell him (read the full interview for the nuance on that choice thing), he adds: ‘Until you’ve tasted the food, you don’t know whether you’ll like it or not, as my mom always said.’

So, now we’re back to the sandwiches? Jane, you’re such a whiz at this, you’re in James Franco territory.

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-- Matt Donnelly
twitter.com/MattDonnelly