Tom Hanks has opened up about his battle with Covid-19 for the first time, having contracted the virus whilst in Australia last month.
The Green Mile star became infected with coronavirus and was placed into lockdown on Queensland’s Gold Coast, whilst he was in the country filming for Baz Luhrmann’s upcoming Elvis Presley biopic, in which he is set to play the Love Me Tender crooner’s manager Colonel Tom Parker.
Now, the 63-year-old actor has revealed how the virus affected him in an interview with The National Defense Radio Show in the US. Hanks said the main symptoms he experienced were “body aches” and feeling very fatigued, to the point where he could barely even manage to do simple stretching exercises.
“I just tried to do basic stretches and exercises on the floor and I couldn’t even get halfway through,” he told the military radio show.
However, the veteran actor revealed he got off lightly compared to his wife of more than 30 years, singer and actress Rita Wilson, who also fell ill with coronavirus on the Gold Coast, having flown to Australia to spend time with her husband and perform a string of solo gigs.
“She was so nauseous, she had to crawl on the floor from the bed to the facilities. It lasted a while,” he said. “Rita went through a tougher time than I did. She had a much-higher fever and she had some other symptoms.
“She lost her sense of taste and smell. She got absolutely no joy from food for a better part of three weeks.”
Just last week, Rita personally opened up about her fight with Covid-19 and revealed first-hand the extent of the symptoms she and the Big star suffered after contracting the virus while in Australia last month.
“I was very tired,” she told CBS This Morning host Gayle King. “I felt extremely achy … uncomfortable, didn’t want to be touched and then the fever started. Chills like I’ve never had before. Looking back, I realise I was also losing my sense of taste and smell which I didn’t realise at the time.”
Rita said she had a fever that reached 102 degrees Fahrenheit (38.8C) and that she was given chloroquine, a drug that has been used to prevent and treat malaria, to reduce the fever.
“I can only tell you that I don’t know if the drug worked or if it was just time for my fever to break, but my fever did break,” she added. “But the chloroquine had extreme side effects. I could not walk. My muscles felt very weak.”