Chet Hanks Clarifies Why He’s Like That

If you’ve ever borne witness to any of Chester “Chet” Hanks’s antics — speaking in patois, trying to popularize “white boy summer,” calling COVID-19 “the motherfucking flu, get over it” — and wondered for the dozenth time how this guy could possibly be the progeny of iconic actor Tom Hanks, Chet released a YouTube video answering that question exactly.

In the video, titled “The Truth About Growing Up As A Hanks,” the tatted rapper/fitness entrepreneur reveals precisely why he is like this. “My dad is beloved, he’s on this pedestal,” he says, before explaining that being the son of a famous person actually invited a lot of contempt from haters who were jealous of his upbringing, his looks, his athleticism, and his adjacency to fame.

“I didn’t have a strong male model to tell me … ‘Hey, bro, fuck these people, they’re just jealous of you, you have all these things that they want,’” Chet confesses, seemingly suggesting that his widely adored father wasn’t around to help take the chip off his shoulder. Could it be that, in working overtime to be America’s role model, Tom wasn’t around enough to be his own son’s? After all, those Oscar-winning films don’t just appear out of thin air — and all those random strangers’ weddings do not crash themselves.

Chet shares further that he was ashamed of his own privilege, which led to him developing an anger problem and running “about as far in the opposite direction” of his upbringing as he could go when he got older. That may explain basically everything about his entire deal.

But now, Chet says, he’s trying to own his truth. And that’s why he wants viewers to sign up for HanxFit, his “self-mastery” fitness training program, he concludes. Self-growth never ends, and neither does the hustle.