Thomas Jane - Career

Career

Jane began his acting career with the Telugu film Padamati Sandhya Ragam (1986), directed by Jandhyala, a renowned filmmaker in Telugu Cinema. His early roles included Zeph in Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1992). He also had supporting roles in several high profile films, including The Crow: City of Angels (1996), Boogie Nights (1997), The Thin Red Line (1998), Thursday (1998) and Magnolia (1999). After receiving critical acclaim as baseball player Mickey Mantle in 61*, Jane began receiving leading roles like Andre Stander in the 2003 South African film Stander, for which he gained further critical acclaim.

Jane, director Jonathan Hensleigh, and Avi Arad have said that Jane was the first and only actor to be asked to play the title role in the 2004 movie The Punisher. He initially turned down the role twice, as he did not have much interest in the superhero genre. When they asked him the second time to play the Punisher, it was Tim Bradstreet's artwork of the character that secured his interest. After finding out that the character was not a traditional superhero, but more of an anti-hero and a vigilante crime fighter, he accepted. He read as many Punisher comics as he could find and quickly became a fan, then trained for several months with Navy SEALs and gained more than twenty pounds of muscle.

In addition to starring in the movie, he contributed his voice to the video games The Punisher and Gun. He also co-owns RAW, an entertainment company which he runs with Steve Niles and Tim Bradstreet. RAW Studios, the company's comic book division, released Bad Planet (written by Jane) through Image Comics. Jane became a spokesperson for Steve Niles and the cover model for comic book character Cal McDonald in 2006. In addition to his screen work, Jane has appeared several times on stage, and received strong critical reviews as Tom in Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie, and as Chris in Arthur Miller's All My Sons. He has also portrayed a fictionalized version himself in the Fox television show Arrested Development in which the show's characters have not heard of him, and do not recognize him as the star actor that he is.

Jane did not return in the planned sequel to The Punisher. Lions Gate Entertainment had approved a direct sequel due to the strong sales of the film on DVD. However, the project lingered in development for over three years. Jonathan Hensleigh completed a first draft of the script before leaving the project in 2006. John Dahl was in talks to direct the film, but cited his dislike of the script and the reduced budget as his reasons for refusing. In a statement on May 15, 2007 and in two audio interviews, Thomas Jane said that he pulled out of the project due to creative differences and the studio's further reduction of the budget.

Jane said in June 2007 that Zack Snyder had expressed interest in casting him for the role of 'The Comedian' for the adaptation of Alan Moore's graphic novel Watchmen, but because he was too busy, he turned down the role. His directing debut was the 2007 film Dark Country, in which he also played the main character. It was reported on February 8, 2008, that Thomas Jane had joined movie director John McTiernan in the action/thriller movie Run. However, Jane did not sign on to the film, and due to McTiernan's civil suit, the film has been put on hold. On May 27, 2008, it was reported that Jane and Ving Rhames had joined the cast in the action film Give em Hell, Malone.

On December 18, 2008, HBO announced it was picking up the dark comedy Hung, and Jane was contracted to star in the show. He plays the character of Ray Drecker, a high school history teacher and baseball coach, who, after attending a self-help class while being down on his luck, decides to market the large size of his penis as a path to success. The series was renewed for a second season which aired in the summer of 2010. It is unknown when, but Thomas Jane will develop a mini series for Syfy Channel called Voyage to Savage Planet. He is also planning on doing a World War II action horror film called The Devil's Commandos.

Jane appeared on the June/July 2010 cover of Men's Fitness magazine. Thomas Jane voiced the character Jonah Hex in an animated short as a companion piece on the Special Edition Blu-ray and 2-Disc Special Edition DVD release of Batman: Under the Red Hood. He was set to play the role of a cop in Sylvester Stallone's hitman action pic 'Headshot,' but then he was deemed not "ethnic" enough and let go. In a recent interview with Collider he mentions an upcoming film project called 'The Lycan.' Thomas Jane describes this project as a gothic werewolf romance set in a castle in the 18th century. On June 7, 2012, Jane released a digital EP titled Don't Come Home under the moniker Rusty Blades. At the 2012 San Diego Comic-Con International, Jane debuted an independently financed Punisher short film, directed by Phil Joanou and co-starring Ron Perlman, titled Dirty Laundry.