Thomas Jane, 42, star of HBO series, Hung, has admitted that he once was so broke that he worked as a male prostitute. In an interview with the Los Angeles Times Jane revealed his past, “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?”
Jane said that the experiences allowed him to explore his sexuality and self-knowledge telling the Times, “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.”
When asked if his sexuality was a choice, Jane said, “I don’t know. 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.”
