October 6, 2011 | Celeb Watch

'Hung' actor once hustled

A few weeks ago, HBO’s Hung star, Thomas Jane, got into trouble when he said that the show would be over the second his character put a cock in his mouth.

Well, the actor hoped to clear his statement up for gay fans. 

“I think they took my comment that it would be the last year of the show when I ended up with a [penis] in my mouth ... think they took that comment to be anti-gay,” he said. In reality, he explained, once his character Ray, a male escort, sucked dick it would be the end of the character's development arc. Um, okay ...

“Ray's definition of sex is very narrow, and that makes for good television,” he says. “If we had a character that was very accepting and free and open to trying new things, we'd be [having sex with] an elephant in a circus by Season 3. We get much more mileage out of taking a guy who's very repressed but doesn't even know that he's repressed.”

And for the record Jane said he, himself, is not homophobic. He admitted to exploring gay sex when he was younger.

“You're a lot more open to experimentation as a young man,” he admitted. “And for me, being a young artist and broke in Los Angeles, I was exploring my sexual identity.

"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. 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?"

We think we do.

Sunday Conversation: Thomas Jane [LA Times]