Chet Hanks has opened up about his experience on the reality show The Surreal Life: Villa of Secrets while being almost 10 years sober.
The eldest son of Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson, who got sober before becoming a father to his daughter Michaiah in April 2016, whom he shares with ex Tiffany Miles, told Page Six that he did not feel any temptation to partake in drinking while filming Surreal Life, despite being surrounded by booze.
MTV announces the celebrity cast lineup for the upcoming season of ‘The Surreal Life’:
• Chet Hanks
• Ally Brooke
• Johnny Weir
• Josie Conseco
• Macy Gray
• Tyler Posey
• O.T. Genasis
• Kim Zolciak pic.twitter.com/VMVWcLMruS— Pop Crave (@PopCrave) June 28, 2024
“Yeah, I don’t even think about that,” he says. “It’s, like, not even on my radar — like, the thought of taking a drink or whatnot. So it’s, like, not even a blip on the radar.”
However, the 33-year-old admitted previously on an episode of Bradley Martyn‘s Raw Talk podcast that it wasn’t alcohol that gave him the most trouble, but rather cocaine. “The drug I had the most problem with was just f–king coke, dude.”
“I would go do coke with the cokeheads,” he continued, “and they would be telling me, like, ‘Yo, chill, bro. Wait a second. Give it like 15 minutes.’”
He added, “I couldn’t get enough of that.”
When he was 17, his parents—who noticed “such an abrupt change that it was concerning,” he said—staged an intervention.
“I wake up in the morning,” he explained, “it’s 4 o’clock in the morning and there are two huge f**king dudes standing at the foot of my bed, looking at me. And they go, ‘You’re coming with us.’”
Chet mentioned, “It’s nothing against them, man.” He also noted how his parents “were supportive” of his decision to join the cast of the reality series, as he told Us Weekly.
Chet said, “They definitely have said [no reality TV] in regard to the typical reality shows. When this came up, we discussed it and everybody agreed. We all agreed that this could be a really great opportunity for me, and it was perfect.”
“They were really supportive. I was excited and everybody was,” remarked the rapper.
As an actor, rapper, and YouTuber, Chet has appeared in recurring roles on TV series such as Empire, Shameless, and Your Honor, as well as scoring guest roles on Curb Your Enthusiasm and Atlanta. The Surreal Life was Chet’s first foray into an unscripted reality series, and he suggested that, despite having nearly a decade of sobriety under his belt, newly sober individuals should be more cognizant of their surroundings.
“For somebody who might be earlier in their sobriety where it still is a temptation, my advice would just be, like, remove yourself from that environment,” he suggested.
Hanks also mentioned he was appreciative of having Tyler Posey in his corner on the show, as the Teen Wolf actor, 32, is also completely clean after dabbling in sobriety over the years.
“It was cool just having another sober person in the house, which I definitely was not expecting,” Chet told the outlet. “That was a huge surprise because, obviously, you know, most places I go, I’m the only sober person. So that right off the bat was cool and something that we connected on.”
