The end of The Suite Life of Zack & Cody left former child actor Dylan Sprouse, 34, with a Disney Channel legacy and a series of “mental hurdles” he’s still struggling to overcome.
“I’ve described this to people a lot before: when you’re working on television, it’s a day job,” Sprouse said on the Wildmen podcast, which he co-hosts with writer Brendan Columbus. “You go in, you clock in, you clock out, you have a cubicle, you work, obviously, you’re on a stage, and it’s different, but it’s the same hours. You work it like that.”
Sprouse and his twin brother, Cole, starred as twins Zack and Cody, respectively, in Suite Life from 2005-2008 and then on spinoff Suite Life on Deck from 2008 to 2011. Though they were 12 years old when the show began, the twins first appeared on screen in commercials at eight months old and were regulars at one year old on ABC’s series Grace Under Fire and appeared in Adam Sandler’s hit comedy Big Daddy in 1999.
“We’re beating around the bush, but it’s child labor,” Sprouse said. “Some kids used to work in coal mines and guard the mine cart door when they were 15; we just sang and danced. It’s still child labor!”
Sprouse explained that growing up in the entertainment industry meant he had a “workaholic attitude,” even as a kid. Whenever productions wrapped, he felt “this void” that work once filled.
“It feels like my self-esteem, for a long time, was tied integrally into my ability to work and be on set,” he said.
Sprouse also said he had “done well to survive this long” despite his grueling adolescent years, recognizing the value in having Cole, “an identical twin who experienced the same exact thing,” by his side. The twins have continued acting into adulthood, with Sprouse starring in movies like Beautiful Disaster and Aftermath, and Cole playing Jughead Jones in the CW’s Riverdale.
Though his own challenges stemmed largely from Disney, Sprouse told the Daily Beast in 2021 that child stardom’s problems run deeper.
“I think this has everything to do with the industry as a whole, and what it demands, and how the industry is turning particularly young kids into money-making machines,” he said at the time. “I don’t think it’s necessarily wrong, but I think it represents a moral gray area. I have a particular discontent with work I was put into when I was young that was by necessity—of course, for my family and my wellbeing, and I’m thankful for that—but also left me with virtually no agency. I think now I chase that agency a little bit, and it’s a way to take acting back into my own hands a little bit.”
