Chet Hanks goes on anti-vax rant. He remembers his parents battled COVID, right?
When your mom and dad were the first Hollywood celebrities to reveal their COVID-19 cases, what’s a rebel son to do? In Chet Hanks’ case, it’s time to bash the vaccines created to battle the pandemic.
In a profane video posted Monday evening on Instagram, Hanks starts off in an earnest, measured tone.
“Look, I’ve been kind of on the fence about this for a while,” says the 31-year-old son of actors Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson. “That’s why I never spoke on it, but with the amount of people that I know recently who have gotten COVID and with, like, the numbers rising, I think it’s important for me to say I got the vaccine.
“I think everyone should. I think it’s really important that we all do this just as citizens — as Americans — we have to look after each other and get this s— under control, guys,” he continues.
Chet Hanks’ highly unanticipated “White Boy Summer” video has arrived, just as legal woes pile up against the eldest son of Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson.
Then Hanks, who is a big fan of flashing his middle fingers on social media, blurts out a loud “PSYCH!” and goes on a frenzied anti-vax rant.
“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” he shouts. “I’ve never had COVID. They ain’t sticking me with that m— needle. It’s the m— flu. Get over it.”
And he adds a blast for folks who are concerned about spread.
“Why are we working around y’all? If you’re in danger, stay your ass inside! I’m tired of wearing the m— mask!,” he concludes.
Hanks echoed the sentiment in his Instagram story, where he posted, “The vaccine should be a choice not a requirement to perform our basic rights yeah I said it !!!!! Be as mad as you want IDGAF !!!!”
Joseph Arthur has spent the past year opposing the COVID-19 vaccine on social media. His manager and band quit, and his remaining fans beseech him to stop.
A few commenters on the video brought up his folks: “But didn’t your parents..... Nvm!” Others said things along the lines of “i swear i was about to unfollow you ….. this shows God is working on my patience cuz i actually watched the video to see what you had to say.” Another group was critical of his stance.
Hanks’ parents announced March 11, 2020, that they had tested positive for the novel coronavirus.
That was when the pandemic was ramping up worldwide and before lockdowns began in California, and Tom Hanks and Wilson were the first big-name celebs to go public with their diagnoses. The couple “sheltered in place” in Australia — where Hanks was filming a Baz Luhrmann movie — until their quarantine period was over.
“Look, there’s no law against ignorance. It’s not illegal to have opinions that are wrong,” COVID-19 survivor Tom Hanks said in a “Today” interview Tuesday.
They had relatively mild cases, with Hanks tweeting back then, “We felt a bit tired, like we had colds, and some body aches. Rita had some chills that came and went. Slight fevers too. To play things right, as is needed in the world right now, we were tested for the Coronavirus, and were found to be positive.”
Chet Hanks said a few days after the announcement: “I just got off the phone with them. They both are fine. They’re not even that sick. They’re not worried about it. They’re not trippin’. But they’re going through the necessary health precautions, obviously. But I don’t think it’s anything to be too worried about.”
Colin Hanks, Chet’s half-brother, said at the time that he was “confident that they will make a full recovery.”
Tom Hanks says he and his wife are on the mend as their coronavirus quarantine winds down in Australia. A rapping Rita Wilson adds, “Hip-hop hooray, hey, ho.”
Wilson later said she was given chloroquine nine days into her illness but didn’t like the “extreme” side effects. “I don’t know if the drug worked or if it was just time for the fever to break,” she said in a TV interview. She said she had a fever of nearly 102 degrees, lost her senses of taste and smell, and had chills like she’d “never had before.”
Wilson said in April that she and her husband hadn’t been vaccinated yet but were “in line” as various new tiers began to open.
Meanwhile, Tom Hanks has been vocal about people who don’t take COVID-19 seriously.
“Look, there’s no law against ignorance. It’s not illegal to have opinions that are wrong,” the elder Hanks said in July 2020. “But there is a darkness on the edge of town here, folks, and ... let’s not confuse the fact: It’s killing people.”
Chet Hanks, the eldest son of Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson, has floored the internet once again by declaring a “white boy summer” on Instagram.
On the heels of being ridiculed for his “white boy summer” plans, Chet Hanks’ latest rant was a sharp turn from his recent birthday post. Last week he declared he was happy to have made it to 31 when he knew “a lot” of good people who hadn’t. He went to rehab in 2015 for cocaine and crack addiction.
“Drugs, OD’s… S— coulda went left for me a bunch of times but it didn’t,” he wrote. “I’m just grateful to be able to experience this next chapter in this massive beautiful work of art we call Life.
“If it’s one thing I’ve learned it’s that until you’re able to tell that younger version of yourself what you really needed to hear you’re destined to continue making the same mistakes, and the only thing that holds us back are the imaginary limits we create in our own minds.”
The biggest entertainment stories
Get our big stories about Hollywood, film, television, music, arts, culture and more right in your inbox as soon as they publish.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
