Chet Hanx discusses growing up as Tom Hanks' son and not having a 'strong male role model'
There's no rulebook on being the child of a national treasure and Chet Hanx (né Hanks, formerly Haze) has certainly struggled to come into his own as the eldest of Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson. In a new YouTube video, the rapper, actor, and fitfluencer gets candid about growing up Hanks.
At first, the video, titled "The Truth About Growing Up as a Hanks," feels like it might be some sort of exploitative tell-all about his famous parents, but it's really just a grown man attempting to come to terms with fame by proxy ... and maybe sell you on his fitness program
Hanx, shirtless, opens his video by acknowledging "White Boy Summer," his attempt at a summer bop (that was just wrong in too many ways to get into right now), and its place among the top things people question him about. The other question, of course, is what it's like being the son of Tom Hanks — something even George W. Bush asked him when Hanx met the 43rd President as a kid during a family trip to the White House.
"The answer I gave him then is the same answer I give people now and it's, I said, 'Well, Mr. President, there's a lot of advantages, but sometimes it can be pretty weird,' " Hanx says.
The advantages, he states, are obvious — traveling the world, nice hotels, private planes — but the weirdness comes from his proximity to fame, which he calls "the most powerful drug in the world." While he admits that he used to think fame would validate him, he's since realized that "true validation can only come from within."
"My experience was even more complicated because, on top of fame already being toxic, I wasn't even famous," he adds. "I was just the son of somebody famous, so I hadn't even done anything to deserve any sort of recognition, and that created a lot of contempt."
Interestingly enough, Hanx cites a lack of a "strong male role model" for a lot of the angst and insecurity he felt growing up. "I didn't have a strong male role model to tell me, 'Bro, f--- these people, they're just jealous of you,' " he says.
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Hanx continues, " 'You have all these things that they want, so they are trying to f---ing throw their shade at you so you can feel s---ty about yourself because they are jealous.' I needed to hear that. I didn't have anyone to tell me that. This is me now telling the younger version of myself what I needed to hear then."
EW has reached out to Hanks for comment but have not received a response as of publication.
This whole endeavor is part of Hanx's "self-mastery program" HanxFit. The White Boy Summer Hanx of last year is relegated to the past and so he wanted to come clean, as it were, and start from the beginning.
"Today, I'm grateful, I've changed my life. I no longer have gone down that self-destructive road of dealing with my anger and my resentment by self-destructing, by pleasure-seeking through partying, drugs, alcohol, substances, everything," Hanx says, explaining why he started his program.
"I'm just focused on doing the work and being the best me I can be."
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