Tom Hanks shares that Jeff Bezos’ offered him a ride to space on his Blue Origin rocket but it turns out that he turned it down.
Thomas Jeffrey Hanks, 65, is an American actor and filmmaker. Known for both his comedic and dramatic roles, he is one of the most popular and recognizable film stars worldwide and is regarded as an American cultural icon.
Jeffrey Preston Bezos, 57, is an American entrepreneur, media proprietor, investor, and computer engineer. He is the founder and executive chairman of Amazon, where he previously served as the president and CEO.
With a net worth of $195.9 billion as of November 2021, Bezos is the second-wealthiest person in the world according to both Forbes and Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index.
Hanks was in Wednesday’s episode of “Jimmy Kimmel Live” and confirmed the rumors that the Amazon founder offered him a seat on the space flight. It was the same one offered to actor William Shatner, 90, and Hanks revealed that if he accepted the deal, then he was expected to pay.
“Well yeah, provided I pay,” Hanks said. “It costs like $28 million or something like that. And I’m doing good, Jimmy — I’m doing good — but I ain’t paying $28 million. You know what, we could simulate the experience of going to space right now.”
“It’s about a 12-minute flight, is that about it?” Hanks jokingly said. “Twelve-minute flight? OK. We could all do it in our seats right here.”
Hanks then mimicked the flight experience by shaking his chair and said: “I don’t need to spend 28 million bucks to do that. I can do that at home.”
He said that if the flight were free, he might do it “on occasion just in order to experience the joy of pretending I’m a billionaire.”
Last month, Shatner and three fellow passengers hurtled to an altitude of 66.5 miles over the West Texas desert in the fully automated capsule, then safely parachuted back to Earth. The flight lasted just over 10 minutes.
Shatner took part in a Blue Origin space flight becoming the oldest person to travel to space. Bezos, who is a lifelong Star Trek fan, did not charge the actor for the flight.
Shatner, best known for playing Captain Kirk in the Star Trek television and film franchise, described the trip as similar to experiencing the difference between life and death, with the blue sky turning black as the rocket climbed higher.
He called it the “most profound experience,” and said that “I hope I never recover from this. I hope that I can maintain what I feel now. I don’t want to lose it.”
The Wall Street Journal reported that Shatner, along with Audrey Powers, Blue Origin’s vice president of mission and flight operations, did not pay for their flight trip. The company described them as guests for the trip.
The New York Times also reported last month that the company has not publicly stated a price for a ticket, so it is possible that Hanks was referring to the auction price for one of the seats.
Hanks appeared on the show to promote his new movie “Finch”. He also paid tribute to his late friend, actor Peter Scolari, whom he worked with on the sitcom “Bosom Buddies.”
Kimmel played a clip from a 1981 episode of the show, with Hanks saying the two were so connected.
“Peter has a lovely family, his wife Tracy, absolutely great kids and we lost him to the emperor of all maladies,” Hanks said. “So thanks for letting us show that.”
Hanks’s films have grossed more than $4.9 billion in North America and more than $9.96 billion worldwide, making him the fourth highest-grossing actor in North America.