Since he stars on a hit HBO show called "Hung," it's no surprise that Thomas Jane's mind often goes below the belt. We caught up with Jane to talk about the third season of the show -- premiering Sunday night on HBO -- his character's transition from well-endowed basketball coach to fulltime escort and, of course, the perfect penis.
What's going on?
There's a bunch of guys hammering and drilling and sawing downstairs. I'm adding a couple of rooms to the bottom of the house.
Are you adding a man cave?
Exactly.
What are we talking about? Huge flat screen, wet bar?
We're talking about a high-def, 3D projector.
What can we expect on the new season of "Hung?"
Expect it to be sexier this year and also funnier, faster paced. I think that season one we got mileage from it because the characters were sort of beaten down by the economy and finding a way to pay the rent outside the system. It's been like three years and the economy is still in the crapper. I think people don't want to be reminded of that while they watch TV anymore; it's too depressing.
So we switched gears. We've got Ray and Tanya doing really well. Ray's not teaching anymore, he's ho-ing full time and he's making money. He's gotten himself a little sports car. He's really doing well with this stuff. What that means is he's got a lot to lose.
You're right. I remember it was a big deal that "Hung" talked about the economy. Ever imagine it would still be so awful?
We were pretty sure that it was going to be a little bubble of bad time and we were going to bounce back like every other time. Now it's just depressing.
Did you get flashes of "Deuce Bigelow" when you were first offered the part?
No, real men don't watch "Deuce Bigelow."
Have real life gigolos come up to you on the street to say thanks?
For blowing their cover? I probably have had gigolos come up and thank me, although people don't identify themselves as gigolos generally.
Do you think prostitution should be made legal?
Yes I do. It's the world's oldest profession. It'll never go away. Places where prostitution is legal you find much better health care, fewer cases of disease and illegal abortions. There's really nothing to be gained by keeping prostitution illegal.
But I think people have so much other stuff that they deem more important that there's no attention being paid to change it. It would be a sign of society changing if we did finally legalize prostitution. Once it's legal it doesn't mean your daughter's going to run out and be a ho. The more we sort of bring these things into the light, you bring these hidden vices into the light, the less power they have over our society. You make it legal, it tends to go away. We haven't quite learned that yet. We might learn it with marijuana.
You must get a million girls hitting on you.
[Laughs] Um, things look bigger on TV. There's no way ... you gotta sidestep the whole ... no matter how hung you are you're not going to live up to the ideal of the perfect penis that Ray's been endowed with. The reason we don't show the penis is we want everybody to have their own fantasy about what that might look like and be. Everybody's got a different ideal. We like to play on that in the show. It's pretty fun though. I've had more guys staring at my crotch than girls though.
Ever felt uncomfortable?
Yeah I feel like a girl. I say, "Buddy my eyes are up here!"
Do you have men following you into the bathroom?
That I don't know about. I'm not that paranoid. I'm not glancing around. I take a leak on the wall like everybody else. It hasn't sent me running into the stall. Besides if you really want to see my penis I'll show it to you. I actually had somebody at a party say, "Hey let's see your penis," and I pulled it out.
You did?!
Yeah it was great. Got a pretty good laugh out of that.