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Saturday December 21, 2024

Dylan Sprouse pushed back on making 'disrespectful' fat joke in 'Suite Life'

Dylan and Cole Sprouse, then-12, defended the rest of the cast all the way through the Disney show

By Web Desk
November 23, 2023
Dylan and Cole Sprouse were only 12 when they starred in Suite Life with Zack and Cody
Dylan and Cole Sprouse were only 12 when they starred in Suite Life with Zack and Cody 

Dylan and Cole Sprouse are being heralded for their timeless impact on the set of The Suite Life of Zack and Cody.

During an appearance on the Back to the Best podcast, Kim Rhodes, who played the twins’ mother on the Disney show, recounted how Dylan, then-12-years-old, took a stand against a fat joke in the script.

She revealed that she got pregnant during the series, which automatically led the writers to start curating fat jokes to deal with it.

However, the tween refused to make the joke when he read it in the script.

“One of my favorite memories is Dylan had a line that was a fat joke and he just kept skipping over it. It was, like, in the middle of a chunk of dialogue, so he kept skipping this laugh line,” Rhodes shared.

When the Beautiful Disaster actor skipped the line during filming of the scene, it prompted the executive producer to yell at him from backstage.

“He goes ‘Cut! Dylan! Say the line!’ and [Dylan] goes, ‘I would not disrespect any woman that way, let alone this woman. You write something funny and I’ll say it,’” Rhodes recalled. “That’s my little man.”

Besides defending the Supernatural alum “all the way through,” Rhodes revealed the twins were very “protective” of the rest of the cast as well, including Ashley Tinsdale and Brenda song.

“They understood that – like, early on, Phil [Lewis] was like, ‘Look, you are the only two people on this set that are not expendable, so you take the bullet, every time.’ And they took that so seriously,” she noted.

“And so the fact that they, at such a young age, understood that it was their job to make sure everybody else was able to do their job was really impressive.”

She added, “They were exceptional.”