Thomas Jane, the star of the HBO series
Hung, says he's proud of his 1999 gay role.
Jane played the title role in the film
The Velocity of Gary* *(Not His Real Name). In the film,
Gary, whose real name is never revealed, is in love with former porn
star Valentino (Played by Vincent D'Onofrio), who is dying of AIDS.
In Hung, Jane plays high school
teacher Ray Drecker, a struggling divorcee and father of two
teenagers living in suburban Detroit. With the help of former
girlfriend Tanya Skagle (played by Jane Adams), Ray begins
moonlighting as a male prostitute after a house fire leaves him with
few options.
In the show's third season, which
premieres in October, Drecker will rent himself out to a pre-op
transgender receptionist named Kyla (Jamie Clayton), putting his
character closer to that forbidden LGBT zone.
In talking about the storyline, Jane
told New York Mag's Vulture blog: “I told HBO, the
year I end up with a penis in my mouth is the last year of the show.”
On
Wednesday he dialed back his comment.
“Of course, everything I said was
meant in good humor, good fun. You know, I'm a fan of the gay
community, just because I've grown up in Hollywood around them. I
have family members, friends, co-workers, a lot of the writers on
Hung are gay, so it's amusing to think, obviously I would
never be able to tell HBO what to do, or the writers how to write the
character.”
“I feel very proud of the fact that I
still have one of the longest gay kisses in screen history, me and
Vincent D'Onofio, in The Velocity of Gary,” he said. (The
scene is embedded in the right panel of this page.)
“Nothing I say should be taken too
seriously,” he added.