Entertainment
The iconoclastic Hanks brother is reaching new heights as a team player on NetflixsRunning Point.
That is, until the topic of his most infamous red-carpet stunt comes up.
Half a decade later, hes still getting a good laugh out of it.
I did not expect that to go as viral as it did, he tells me, getting animated.
Honestly, it was the thing that started the momentum for pretty much everything.
Hanks has always fancied himself a disruptor.
Prompting people to wonder what the hell hes doing thats the MO.
Some people were completely perplexed, he recalls.
What is he doing?
Does he actually talk like that?
The people that gravitated towards me were the people who got the joke.
My dads an actor.
My older brothers an actor.
Wilson obliged, and the then-12-year-old quickly booked his first job.
It was the perfect first gig.
But just acting was never the endgame for Hanks.
He wanted to make music, too.
I became obsessed with 90s rap.
I would study it, he says.
I really wanted to try writing my own.
I wrote my first rap when I was 16.
I was so naive.
I didnt think anybody would care.
I started making more songs.
They were f*cking terrible, he says.
I actually opened up for some big acts.
The experience changed his life, he says, in more ways than one.
I was in treatment with a lot of good old boys from the South.
That was the first time I had ever listened to country music, he says.
Renewed and sober, Hanks returned to LA ready to create.
He landed parts inShamelessandEmpireand began writing and recording more melodic music with his friend Drew Arthur.
Still, getting to the next step took a while nearly a decade, in fact.
Acting is still a priority.
When it rains, it pours: Hes also recently wrapped a film with Bryan Cranston and Lily Gladstone.
(Travis also raps on the side, because of course he does.)
When I got the audition, thats the first thing I thought, too, he says, laughing.
It was the character description: Travis is the white point guard.
Hes covered in tattoos.
I literally said to myself, If I dont get this role, I should just quit.
Hollywood, after all, is a small town.
(The TraitorsSeason 4, anybody?)
Might this be a time to sit back and ride the wave?
Like the over-the-top baller he plays on TV, Hanks wont be sitting still.
I want to get on a tour.
I want to go shoot Season 2.
I want to keep working, he says.
Its been a long road getting here.
Its been blood, sweat, and tears, and I dont take any of it for granted.
Fortune favors the bold and I just want to keep doing it all.
