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“Hung” star Thomas Jane: “Being a young artist and broke in Los Angeles, I was exploring my sexual identity.”

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-jWnuNAM3IKc/Too1iDCPdtI/AAAAAAAA6K0/Yrwv5tKiOO8/s1600/hung.jpgUm, remind me not to let my Sunday Los Angeles Times sit around unopened.

Was too busy to enjoy my Sunday ritual of coffee with the paper so it wasn’t until last night that I realized Hung star Thomas Jane had given this juicy interview about exploring his sexuality when he was younger.

The article covers the controversy the followed Thomas’s remarks that he would not allow his male prostitute character on the show to perform gay sex acts. Anyone who has ever seen the actor’s performance in The Velocity of Gary knows he’s not homophobic so I’m not going to rehash all that.

http://seriesandtv.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/Hung-HBO-cancelled-renewed.jpg

Here’s what I thought was most interesting – and revealing:

“Hey, you grow up as an artist in a big city, as James Dean said, you’re going to have one arm tied behind your back if you don’t accept people’s sexual flavors,” said the actor. “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?”

“You’re a lot more open to experimentation as a young man. And 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.”

It blew the doors off of my conventional upbringing and thinking and opened up possibilities for me that were akin to World War III. And then you actually have a choice, and I chose to be a heterosexual guy because that’s what my DNA dictates and my nurture dictates that I am. … I think up to a point it’s a choice. But I’ll tell you what — it’s not a choice until you’re open enough to experience both male and female sexuality. Until you’ve tasted the food, you don’t know whether you’ll like it or not, as my mom always said.”

FILE UNDER: Television

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2 Remarks

  1. Another variation on this theme is Tom Hardy’s quote in the Huffington Post:

    “Of course I have [had gay sex]. I’m an actor for f*ck’s sake. I’ve played with everything and everyone. I love the form and the physicality, but now that I’m in my thirties, it doesn’t do it for me. I’m done experimenting but there’s plenty of stuff in a relationship with another man, especially gay men, that I need in my life. A lot of gay men get my thing for shoes. I have definite feminine qualities and a lot of gay men are incredibly masculine. A lot of people say I seem masculine, but I don’t feel it. I feel intrinsically feminine. I’d love to be one of the boys but I always felt a bit on the outside. Maybe my masculine qualities come from overcompensating because I’m not one of the boys.”

    As both a stage manager and producer I’ve worked with many actors who, although they may identify as straight and pursue hetero relationships in the present, readily admit to having “dabbled” in gay sex in the past — some for the experience, some for the money, and some for both.

  2. October 4th, 2011 at 6:13 am
    Mark Bessenger says:

    Uh, I didn’t have to taste the food to know I wasn’t attracted to women. It was never a “choice” for me. Makes me wonder what the point of this apology/non-apology explanation/non-explanation is? Is a past lover of his making calls to Nation Enquirer? Is this career damage control? Just like the Joe Jonas album, I’m not buying it.

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