Thomas Jane: Sweet Jane

He's off doing Terrence Malick's World War II epic The Thin Red Line now, but until that film comes out, one would be justified in taking Thomas Jane for a guy who falls naturally into edgy, contemporary sex-and-drugs roles.

_____________________________________

He starred as beat-hero-of-self-indulgence Neal Cassady in_ The Last Time I Committed Suicide_, then went on to play the coke dealer who blows the big rip-off in Boogie Nights, and he's next up as a hustler who gets into a love triangle with Salma Hayek and Vincent D'Onofrio in The Velocity of Gary, and the ex-dealer who gets raped by Paulina Porizkova (yes, Paulina Porizkova) in Thursday. "For me, these guys are not that offbeat," declares Jane, in which case, one wonders, who is? Mickey Rourke. "I'd leave Mickey Rourke alone," says Jane of his Thursday costar. "That guy's scary looking. He's a boxer that happened to fall into acting."

We can assume from Jane's remarks that he's not quite as dark as he may seem, and he's also not as jaded. He admits that the women he likes "all love to have sex," but what he finds sexy is really rather sweet. "The sexiest things are usually the simplest. Like when someone's running out the door and they run back inside to give you a kiss. Or when you wake up in the morning alone and there's a note in the shower." Does his gorgeous _Velocity of Gary _costar Salma Hayek have that kind of sweetness? Perhaps, but it's her persuasive power that left the biggest impression on Jane: "I'm sure that girl is talking her way into and out of stuff from the moment she wakes up till the moment she goes to bed," he says.

_____________________________________

Wolf Schneider