Chet Hanks
As the son of a celebrity, it wasn’t always easy for him
The Hanks clan at the 2020 Golden Globes (from left): Colin Hanks, Tom Hanks, Rita Wilson, Chet Hanks, Elizabeth Hanks and Truman Hanks.
© imago/Future Image
Actor Chet Hanks launches his YouTube channel with a video in which he talks about growing up as the son of movie star Tom Hanks.
“Fame is a double-edged sword.” Actor Chet Hanks (31) experienced this firsthand, like the son of Hollywood star Tom Hanks (65) in a new video of his YouTube channel reports. In “The Truth About Growing Up As A Hanks,” the California native shares “the truth about growing up as a Hanks.”
“There are a lot of advantages, but sometimes it can also be quite strange,” says the 31-year-old in the clip. “I’ve been able to do a lot of cool things that a lot of people don’t have the opportunity to do. I’ve been able to travel the world, stay in nice hotels, fly on private planes, and that’s a blessing.” He wouldn’t want it any other way.
But then he describes the other side of the coin, because fame can also generate “jealousy” and “envy”. “My experience was even more complicated because on top of the fact that fame is already toxic, I wasn’t even famous myself,” Chet said. “I was just the son of someone who was famous, so I hadn’t even done anything to deserve any kind of recognition, and that drew a lot of contempt.”
“Growing up, people used to annoy me a lot”
In high school and college, people formed their opinions about him “before they even had a chance to meet me, and it was extremely difficult to break through those walls,” the actor recalls, adding, ” Growing up, people teased me a lot. But never in my face. It was always behind my back, in the form of gossip.” It took Chet a long time to learn that “people’s perception of you is just a reflection of themselves”.
All these experiences had led to the fact that he had acquired a tough shell. But that didn’t just happen out of anger, but also out of “shame” and “uncertainty” because he grew up “privileged”. In the meantime he has changed his life and is no longer on the “self-destructive path of anger and celebration”. He closes the video by promising that he will always tell the “whole truth” about his life in Hollywood and that “there’s more to come”…
Tom Hanks, who has been married to Rita Wilson (65) since 1988, has sons Colin (44) and Truman (26) and daughter Elizabeth (39) in addition to Chet.