[imagesource: Variety.com]

Tom Hanks says that Jeff Bezos offered him William Shatner’s seat headed to space first.

Provided he pay a whopping “28 million bucks”, of course.

But Hanks declined and then told Jimmy Kimmel all about out it, pretty much dissing Bezos’ commercial space jaunt in the process.

Shatner is the 90-year-old Star Trek actor who took part in a Blue Origin rocket flight from Texas last month (October 13), talking about the experience as if it was the best high he could ever achieve:

“I hope I never recover from this. I hope that I can maintain what I feel now. I don’t want to lose it.” He said.

“It’s so much larger than me and life. It hasn’t got anything to do with the little green men. … It has to do with the enormity and the quickness and the suddenness of life and death.”

On Tuesday’s Jimmy Kimmel Live show, Kimmel asked 65-year-old Hanks if the rumours were true that the Amazon billionaire offered him a spaceflight before Shatner, reported Insider.

Hanks responded before Kimmel could properly get the question out:

Tom Hanks on going to “space” on Bezos’ rocket pic.twitter.com/HyJ865RN8O

— Wu-Tang Is For The Children (@WUTangKids) November 3, 2021

Later, Kimmel asked Hanks if he would consider boarding a spaceflight if it were free:

“I would do it on occasion just in order to experience the joy — pretending I’m a billionaire,” Hanks said in response.

Fair enough.

Although, Hanks has actually bought a ticket to space – with Bezos’ billionaire space rival Richard Branson and his commercial space liner Virgin Galactic.

Granted, it is way cheaper than what Bezos has on offer, costing around $250 000 for a ticket.

In fact, there many other celebs who have booked up Branson’s space flight slots:

Roughly 600 people from 58 countries have reserved tickets.

Earlier this year, Insider’s Dominick Reuter reported that other celebrities such as Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Russell Brand, Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, and Justin Bieber have also purchased Virgin Galactic tickets.

In February last year, the company rolled out a secondary campaign that pulled in a further 1,000 sign-ups — this time for refundable $1,000 deposits toward the price of a full ticket.

So I guess Hanks is on Branson’s team.

Check out the full video from Hanks’ appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live below:

[source:insider]