Chet Hanks, son of actor Tom Hanks, is trapped in Colombia after leaving his U.S. passport at home.
The “White Boy Summer” inventor shared a video on Instagram detailing his predicament. Hanks, 35, had visited Puerto Rico for a friend’s birthday party, but he only brought his Greek passport with him. He explained that he is a dual citizen of Greece and the United States, but his American passport was nearly expired.
“Sometimes they don’t let you in the country, even if it hasn’t expired, but it’s about to expire,” he said in his Friday video.
Hanks decided to take a trip to Medellin, Colombia, to visit another friend because it was a short flight from Puerto Rico. Upon arriving at the José María Córdova International Airport for his return flight to the U.S., he was told that he needed a green card to enter his home country with a foreign passport.
The Los Angeles-born actor does not have a green card since he is an American citizen. However, Greek nationals are typically allowed to travel to the United States for up to 90 days without a visa if they get prior approval from the Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA). Still, people chastised him for not bringing his American passport just in case.
“I literally have no f---ing idea what I’m gonna do,” Hanks continued. “And the only embassy to get this s--- settled is in Bogotá. I don’t want to go to Bogotá, so yeah. Free me.”
The Daily Beast reached out to a representative for Hanks for comment.
Predictably, the comments under Hanks’ Instagram were full of references to Cast Away, the film in which his father gets stranded on a desert island after a plane crash.
Many people suggested that Hanks pull the nepo baby card on the authorities to get out of the country. Others told him to get someone to fly his American passport to Colombia for him.
This is not the first time Hanks has found himself in the spotlight. His antics landed him in the hot seat on the short-lived variety show Ziwe, where celebs and high-profile figures get playfully grilled for their problematic takes.
Most people likely know Hanks for his declaration of “White Boy Summer” in 2021, which accidentally sparked a white supremacist meme.
“White boy summer was created to be fun, playful, and a celebration of fly white boys who love beautiful queens of every race,” Hanks wrote in an Instagram post in 2024. “Anything else that it has been twisted into to support any kind of hate or bigotry against any group of people is deplorable and I condemn it.”
