How Much Would You Pay For Jon Bernthal?

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Exactly forty years after Richard Gere slipped into (and out of) some of the most stylish clothes ever put on a movie screen (in the process turning himself into forty years worth of a sex symbol) it looks like they're going to try to turn Paul Schrader's classic trash American Gigolo into a TV series, with The Punisher actor and bruiser fetish object Jon Bernthal selling his ass this time for top 2020 dollar. This gives me some feelings! And not just those ones, down there. Although obviously I mean those ones too. American Gigolo is still scorching hot here on forty years later -- I just re-watched it a year back and Richard Gere's charisma, which is one word for it, simply cannot be over-stated. Jon Bernthal, it must be said, is also mighty sexy! It's a very different kind of sexy, though...

Gay rumors about Richard Gere (nevermind the gerbils) probably found their footing thanks to his specific breed of anti-machismo -- even when he stomped his little feet and tried to lean into the New York Tough Guy thing (think Looking For Mr. Goodbar) he did it with a dancer's grace; it was never convincing, and he did it with a smile, like he knew he was playing a fetishized role for you. Bernthal on the other hand comes across much more convincingly as a genuine tough guy. There's a whole thread in the American Gigolo movie involving gay panic (I talked about it some back in 2018 when I last posted about this film) -- I can't remember how specific they get but as I recall Gere's male prostitute character Julian does not want to slide into tricking with men; I can't remember if he outwardly states that he'd done it before or not, but it's clear he prefers working with ladies (especially when they look like Lauren Hutton). 

Will this thread stay in a 2020 series run by the dude who made Ray Donovan and starring the dude who played The Punisher, or will it now be de-gayed? Has Jon Bernthal ever played any sort of gay before? I always got a little bit of a homoerotic whiff off of his relationship with Rick in The Walking Dead, but I can't think of anything else. I hope it stays! Keeping a male sex-worker rigidly heterosexual in this day and age seems real goofy to me. But we'll have to wait and see. For now let's spend some of that time with a few more Bernthal photos after the jump then...