Chet Hanks Asks Internet to “Free Me” After Passport Snafu Leaves Him “Stuck” in Colombia

Rapper-model-actor Chet Hanks has marked himself as “OK” as he continues to sort out his reentry into the United States after becoming stranded in Colombia without his passport last week. 

Hanks, the eldest son of actors Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson, explained in an Instagram video on Friday that he flew to Puerto Rico to attend his “homie Max’s birthday, where the 35-year-old dad had “a good time.” But when Hanks was ready to head back home, after he decided on a whim to extend his trip a little further south and outside of a U.S. territory, he realized that wasn’t going to be so easy. 

“I’m in Puerto Rico, and we’re all about to leave. I go, Hmm, I’m only, you know, two, three hours away from Medellin. Why don’t I go pull up on my homie Taylor, who lives in Medellin? Fuck it. Yeah, sounds good, right?” Hanks said in his Instagram video post last week.

Hanks, who is a dual citizen of the U.S. and Greece, was traveling using his Greek passport, he explained. This was because his U.S. passport was about to expire when he left for Puerto Rico. The problem arose when Hanks got to the airport in Medellin and was told that he’ll need his U.S.passport to re-enter the country after his quick trip to Colombia. 

“They tell me that if I’m using a foreign passport,” he said in the clip, “I need a green card to get back into America. I don’t have a green card because I’m an American citizen. I don’t have my American passport with me, so I’m literally stuck in Colombia.”

The self-proclaimed “black sheep of the Hanks family, whose controversies and legal skirmishes contrast with his dad’s clean-cut image, looked far from distraught about his predicament as he told his followers that the only embassy in Colombia where he could sort out his travel fiasco is in Bogota, about 260 miles away from Medellin. 

“I literally have no fucking idea what I’m gonna do…I don’t want to go to Bogota, so, yeah, free me. You know what I’m saying: Free me,” he said at the close of his travel update video. 

On Saturday, Hanks posted an update to his Instagram letting his fans know that he is safe and sound in Colombia. “ESTAMO BIEN,” he wrote in the caption of an image of him with R&B artist Max. 

Hanks appeared to still be in Medellin on Monday, as he indicated in a new video post where he discusses the insomnia he was experiencing, his sobriety and the recent physical altercation and arrest involving Shia LaBeouf ahead of Mardi Gras in New Orleans. 

Hanks’ screen career has included recurring roles on Running Point, Empire, Shameless and Your Honor; he also had guest roles on Curb Your Enthusiasm and Atlanta. 

Since his career picked up in the early 2010s, he’s leaned into his own internet infamy, declaring 2021 to be a “White Boy Summer” on his Instagram page, which he’s used over the years to fan controversy and espouse his political beliefs and thoughts about COVID-19 vaccinations, the Black Lives Matter movement and more topics.