Thomas Jane Was Once A Homeless Teen Prostitute

A Sunday conversation with a Los Angeles Times writer about the upcoming third season of HBO's drama "Hung" segued into discussing a time when star Thomas Jane survived Hollywood's seedier streets by any means necessary.

Jane revealed that he survived his early days after his Los Angeles arrival sleeping in his car and performing gay sexual favors in exchange for money or food at the age of 18.

"You're a lot more open to experimentation as a young man," Jane said.

"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."

The star of "The Punisher," "Dreamcatcher" and "61*" doesn't look back with regret. If anything, Jane approaches that period as a time when the new world he'd entered challenged and expanded upon what he considered a sheltered upbringing and limits on his experiences.

"It blew the doors off of my conventional upbringing and thinking and opened up possibilities for me that were akin to World War III," Jane continued. "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."

His remark about homosexuality being a "choice" likely won't earn Jane any further gay-community allies. He's already faced a measure of backlash after quipping about his successful HBO series that when the show depicted him putting in a penis in his mouth, that would signal the show's end.

Jane discussed his challenging early time in Hollywood as a response to what he consider the reality that "Our entertainment has become so politically correct that we can no longer comment on social issues in a meaningful way."

"I don't know. I think up to a point (sexual orientation) is a choice," Jane said, closing out the Times piece. "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."