Much hay was made when actor Thomas Jane seemed to admit, in an October interview with the L.A. Times, that he did some hustling in his early days.
“Hey, you grow up as an artist in a big city… you’re going to have one arm tied behind your back if you don’t accept people’s sexual flavors. 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?”
But in a more recent interview with The Fix, Jane—who played a middle-aged prostitute on HBO’s just-cancelled drama Hung—says people misunderstood him:
“I never said I was a prostitute… I was talking about my [early] time in Hollywood: I said that I’d had a sexually adventurous time and I was trying to relate that to how I play a prostitute on TV—trying to relate my experience to my character’s experience—and well, people heard what they wanted to hear.”
We dunno, that first quote seems pretty straightfoward. Maybe Jane, like most actors, should stick to only saying things other people write for them.
On another subject, anyone wanna buy us a sandwich?
How about we take this to the next level?
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Chris
He just wants his kids back!
Cam
Sounds like the show is going to be cancelled and his publicist ordered him to back off on the quote so he could audition for some family sitcom soon.
DonsterNYC
People (I think mostly agents) are sooooooo hung up on sex. Why is it so horrible to admit you survived in this capitalist society by selling your ‘services’ to a willing buyer? We know that prostitution has existed in the earliest of societies. Further, the only time that prostitutes have been maltreated has been when society has persecuted the profession, otherwise they have been appreciated and even valued. Today, thousands of college students are financing their education through prostitution–believe it! I remember years ago while in college that several women I knew were quietly servicing a number of johns to make it. By the way, at least two of them left with a degree and NO college loans. Today, even the guys are involved. You know…gay for pay…Just look at Craig’s List and the number of listings by freshman college guys looking for long term (read four year) ‘generous daddies.’ Face it, 18 year old kids today realize that they are highly marketable for only a few years and do not quibbles about taking advantage of their assets before they depreciate. It irritates me that our society condemns an individual for finding a job when no one can hire…duh, unemployment it over 10%. Even more irritating is that the scandal sheets show that the very people condemning prostitution are actually the employers. The real problem is probably the IRS implications…is your prostitute contract labor or are they employees? Maybe they should just be considered the same as your hair stylist? Wow, if we embrace this profession, a lot of these kids are going to need serious tutorials on tax implications…like self reporting earnings and paying estimated income taxes.
Jeff
Thomas Jane is a media whore and annoying.
B
“We dunno, that first quote seems pretty straightfoward.” … yep it does – he’d get some guy who was obviously looking for something more to buy him a sandwich. He’d eat the sandwich and then leave, knowing all along what the guy really wanted. At least, that’s what I’d assume he meant. Today, since he is no long 18, living in his car, and starving, he’d buy his own sandwich and let the guy find someone else rather than take advantage of him.
Jeff
DonsterNYC-Gay for pay guys are really just bisexual or gay but male prostitutes who know that they’ll attract more eldergay sugardaddy johns-who actually think that actual straight/hetero men have and want sex with men and even want sex with them!-if they advertise as being “straight”. If you’re in college or a young adult and you wind up being a male or female prostitute you’re going to need a lot of therapy, and you might wind up being beaten, robbed, or wind up dead like those women in Boston who hooked up with the Craigslist killer or like those women in both Long Island NY and Atlantic city who were hookers that were killed.
Wingfield
Well he DIDN’T say he didn’t have sex with guys… he just said he wasn’t a prostitute. He still admitted to being sexually adventurous. Good enough for me.
Interesting
@Wingfield: If your interpretation is correct, that’s actually better than gay for pay.
Marcus
Tom Hardy, Luke Evans and now Thomas Jane (among many others). Can’t any actor give an interview properly without it being “misunderstood,” or “taken out of context?”
DonsterNYC
Jeff: Your bias against prostitution is clearly evident in your post. Does it really matter whether they are bi, gay, or straight? They are still ‘gay for pay.’ Does it really matter why their john is paying them? No, because in the end they are still getting paid. It’s a big assumption on your part to say they all will need a lot of therapy–why? The kids today have a whole different mindset about this. They don’t even see it as sex. They are certainly not getting emotionally involved. They are in it for the money and that is it. Of course there are risks with physical abuse, but that is only because our society demonizes prostitution. You don’t find prostitutes being abused in Nevada. Finally, millions of advertisements are posted on Craig’s List and hundreds of thousands of hookups occur and you cite less than a dozen people murdered and, while that is horrible, statisticians would agree that it seems the odds are pretty much in favor of the prostitute.
Jeff
Actually yes male and female prostitutes do see what they do as sex, you’d have to be delusional to think that it’s not. None of those guys are straight and this just shows how you’re one of those pathetic gay men who thinks that all men even straight men have or want to have sex with men, and will even do it for cash as a prostitute. I am actually for legalized prostitution, street prostitution is not a good thing and if you DIY and meet with strangers in bars or online you’re just begging to get beaten, robbed, or become a statistic. I do know people who did have to resort to prostitution and yes it did damage them a lot and changed their views on sex, relationships, and everything else for the worse.
Eric in Chicago
The whole premise of HUNG was a fairy tale – no man could make a living at prostitution without sleeping with men.
shannon
IN LA……IF YOU WANT FAME….YOU HAVE TO PUT OUT….MEN THE NOST! YOU WOULD BE SHOCKED AT THE MALE “STARS” WHO HAVE PUT OUT FOR FAME OR MONEY
RT
I have this weird conspiracy theory, that all these celebrities who say they were sexually adventurous in their 20s might just be saying that to get male audience/fanbase. It doesn’t have to be true, and he’s not obligated to start having sex with men in the future, nor do most women mind. But the gays, we will start buying their products. Watch their movies, buy the DVDs, buy another one and gift it to someone else, or buy their watches or cologne.
This way, they made money, but they are still straight.
jason
His agent probably got to him and told him that he couldn’t market himself as a sex symbol unless he was 100% straight. If anything, females are to blame for this.
DonsterNYC
Jeff: I’ve done too much research on this topic and statistics do not back up your claim. The vast majority of prostitutes see what they do as a job…get in, get someone off, get out..they do not see what they do as anything similar to sex in a relationship–there is no emotional attachment, period. Your claim that all ‘gay for pay’ prostitutes are never straight guys is patently untrue. Within the last few years substantial numbers of straight guys in the business have turned from servicing women to including men as well. And why? Because ‘gay for pay’ nets on the average five times what they would make with a female client. That’s too enticing to ignore–they can service five guys in a week and net what would have taken 25 woman to produce. Ask any prostitute if they are going to be hired by 25 women in a week and they would laugh at you. But, to find five guys in a week–absolutely possible. Regarding the violence you mention…again, if the statistics indicated that finding a prostitute on Craig’s List would lead the majority to some kind of violence or robbery, people would simply not use it. However, I can see we are never going to find common ground and I can’t give any more time to this comment thread so I’m outta here. Hope your response isn’t too ugly. –Cheers!
MEJ
@Eric in Chicago:
Quite true. Even on the “reality” show Gigolos, it’s been found out the female “clients” are paid to have sex with the gigolos.
Wesley Horace
i’m glad that show was cancelled. to have a show called hung and never once show your cock… thats just a tease!
Nikole27
I love that show!! bummed it was cancelled. Hung got me all hot by the end of each show from all the sex scenes. call me at 888-471-4468 and you can also check me out on http://www.easygirls.com
Kurt
I’m glad Hung was canceled, it was one of the worst if not the most poorly written shows done by HBO. I mean c’mon they canceled Rome and even Carinvale but then had 4 seasons of hung? I did try watching the TV show and hung did focus way too much on the main character’s kids, and they should have made the main character bisexual since women are probably not going to pay for sex with a man or a gigilo no matter how attractive he is or if he’s just some below average ex gym teacher. Oh and for the guy who thinks that prostitutes never get attached to their clients or don’t wind up ever dating or even having relationships with people who they met as clients you are wrong. Also those guys can pretend that they are LOL “straight” but if they’re whoring with men and having sex with men even just for pay, then they’re at least bisexual or even gay. Let’s face it if you are a prostitute or resort to being a prostitute when you’re not homeless or somehow forced into it, then you’re an idiot.
darkanser
My advice to Thomas Jane: that ship has sailed. No one misunderstood your accepting a sandwich from a stranger on Santa Monica boulevard. Perhaps, you’re disputing the perceived extent of these activities in your early life. OK, you didn’t do this full time. However,if you had to peddle your body once — or even twice — to survive on the street, who are we to judge? We all know there’s a ton of guys willing to buy a cute young man a “sandwich” as there are guys willing to pay for women. Guys pay.
I sometimes shudder to think about all of those gorgeous bartenders and gogo dancers in those clubs who tease and flirt with us but never put out! Well, some of them put out,obviously, but a whole lot make good money off us by fueling that omnipresent fantasy. If pressed they often declare themselves straight. Frankly, I’m not big on categorizing people in that way. I’ll take them at their word. But wasn’t our collective libido stimulated just a bit by Thomas Jane’s initial disclosure? I know mine was.
darkanser
@darkanser: P.S. And if it was all a lie and a publicity stunt, devious but clever