Tom Hanks’ son, actor Chet Hanks, has opened up about his struggles with fame and growing up with a Hollywood legend for a father.
Oscar-winning actor Tom shares Chet, 33, and Truman, 29, with actress wife Rita Wilson. Tom also has a son Colin, 46, and a daughter Elizabeth Ann Hanks, 42, from his previous marriage to Samantha Lewes.
Chet, real name Chester Marlon Hanks, is currently starring in MTV’s Surreal Life: Villa of Secrets, a Big Brother style reality TV series with several other celebrities including Singer Macy Gray, Fifth Harmony’s Ally Brooke, and Teen Wolf star Tyler Posey.
On Tuesday, July 23, during the season premiere episode, the star spoke openly about growing up in the spotlight.
The actor devastatingly revealed that he spent much of his childhood feeling ‘worthless’.
‘I’ll tell you something about my childhood. People think that being Tom Hanks’ son, like, I would grow up feeling like I was the s**t,’ Chet said on the episode.
‘I actually grew up feeling completely f**king worthless.’
The actor, who has appeared in Empire, Shameless and Your Honor, then revealed: ‘People treated me like, “You must think you’re better than me” when I didn’t. I just wanted to be friends with everybody and be treated like everybody else.’
‘But what am I supposed to do? Walk through the doors and be all meek and timid? That was a mind f**k for me to deal with.’
‘If you do walk in through the door and you’re like, “Here I am mother f**ker,” then it’s like, “Oh look at you arrogant son of a bitch.” I did internalize all that negativity. Maybe I am f**king worthless, you know what I’m saying?’
According to the actor, it was a ‘battle for me mentally and emotionally just to be able to walk outside, look someone in the eye and say, “What’s up? I’m Chet.”’
Chet has previously spoken about struggling with being his father’s son. In his first YouTube video from 2022, he said: ‘I was deeply insecure and ashamed of my upbringing.’
‘On top of all that, I had all these people projecting all this negative s**t on me. It was just an avalanche of feeling worthless. ‘
‘I felt like a little p***y rich kid who hadn’t gone through s**t who didn’t deserve to be in this position.’
‘The truth is [fame] is a very double-edged sword, not a lot of people understand it.’
He concluded: ‘Fame is the most powerful drug known to man. It can also be the most destructive. People are infatuated with fame, they put famous people on a pedestal. Everybody wants to be famous. It creates a lot of jealousy, a lot of envy.’