Tom Hanks sent a letter to an eight-year-old Australian boy who was being bullied by classmates over his name, Corona, 7News Gold Coast reports. Hanks also gave him a Corona-brand typewriter.
After Hanks and his wife Rita Wilson announced last month that they tested positive for COVID-19 while in Australia, Corona De Vries penned a letter to the couple to see how they were feeling.
"I heard on the news you and your wife had caught the coronavirus," he wrote. "Are you OK?” De Vries also shared that while he loved his name, he had grown "sad and angry" because kids in his school were calling him coronavirus.
"Your letter made my wife and I feel so wonderful," Hanks wrote back in a typed letter.
"Even though I was no longer sick, getting your letter made me feel even better," Hanks continued, referencing his return to Los Angeles after spending two weeks in quarantine. "You know, you are the only person I've ever known to have the name Corona – like the ring around the sun, a crown."
"I thought this typewriter would suit you," he added. "Ask a grown up how it works. And use it to write me back."
Hanks ended his letter, writing, "P.S. You got a friend in ME!" An homage to the Randy Newman song "You've Got a Friend in Me" from the 1995 film Toy Story.
Hanks recently appeared on The National Defense Radio Show and detailed what it was like having coronavirus. While the two-time Oscar winner admits that his wife had a "tougher time," he was "very fatigued" and suffered from "bad body aches."
The couple was in Australia at the time of their positive test result because Hanks was set to begin filming the untitled film about Elvis Presley where he was playing the singer's longtime manager Colonel Tom Parker.
