Here’s Why Everyone’s Talking About Tom Hanks’ Son Chet

At Sunday’s Golden Globes ceremony, beloved actor Tom Hanks was presented with the Cecil B DeMille award for his services to the film industry.

His wife Rita Wilson and four children all turned out to support him – but one Hanks offspring managed to grab more attention than the others.

Just before the show, Chet Hanks shared a video of himself speaking about his famous dad in the Jamaican language of patois on the red carpet.

This is going to give you serious second-hand cringe, but you only have to listen to it once, we promise you:

https://www.instagram.com/p/B69VY-Tp2e5/

“Why… is he speaking like that?” wondered the internet. “Is he not a white man born and raised in Los Angeles? Is he not TOM HANKS’ SON?” And yes, he is.

But those who have been aware of Chet Hanks for some time know that this is not at all out of character for him.

The 29-year-old has done a bit of acting (he’s been in Empire, Shameless, and Marc Maron’s sitcom) but in 2011 attempted to launch a career as a rapper under the name Chet Haze.

https://www.instagram.com/p/B6ZLo0_pu0E/

In one song, he rapped “judgin’ someone for their dad is just as bad as being racist”, and in another, repeatedly used the N-word – but when he was called out on it, made a video defending his actions:

Look, I know the majority of y’all are not gonna get this because the history is still so fresh in our country. But hip hop isn’t about race. It’s about culture you identify with. And can’t no one tell me what I can’t say.

Patently untrue! But look, he’s still ‘identifying with the culture’, so what can we say… he’s consistent.

After his video went viral on Sunday, Chet shared a screenshot of a CNN headline about him, wondering why people cared about him when “we’re on the verge of WW3”.

https://www.instagram.com/p/B6-49yBJCsQ/

He still used the publicity to push his latest single (handy) and posted a few more videos of himself speaking in patois – last night, however, he reverted to his actual speaking voice to address the situation:

Never in a million years would I have thought that me just goofing around on the red carpet would have got so much attention… One thing I’m not joking about is my love and appreciation for Jamaica, the Jamaican culture. That has been incredible, all the love that I’ve been getting from Jamaica has been really incredible, it has touched me deeply in my heart.

“You know it’s all in good fun, I’m a goofball, I goof around, but one thing I’m not joking about is my love for the Jamaican people and Jamaican culture,” he repeated.

Fascinating. We don’t know what Tom thinks about all this, but we do know that Rita commented saying his red carpet patois was “maybe the best laugh of the night”. Perhaps they’ve decided to just let go and let God. Might be the best idea.

• Golden Globes
• tom hanks