Dylan Sprouse wasn’t having it.
The Suite Life of Zack & Cody recalled the time he was required to say an uncomfortable joke during a Thursday visit to SiriusXM’s Andy Cohen Live. Sprouse said he refused to say a scripted fat joke about co-star and TV mom Kim Rhodes when she was pregnant.
“[I] just don’t really think fat jokes are funny,” Sprouse said. “There’s a better joke somewhere else, unless you’re talking about yourself. Unless it’s self-referential, which I find is fun, but if you’re pointing the finger at people and talking about how they look, I just don’t tend to find that very funny in general. I think there’s better jokes.”
By Sprouse’s estimation, he was about 14 or 15 when the incident occurred.
Cohen asked how he pushed back against an executive producer.
Sprouse had a quick comeback. “I mean, you’d be amazed at what having your own show at 11 will do for your confidence.”
His own situation played a part, Sprouse said.
“I was a huskier young lad who, again, really didn’t come into himself until he was like 18. My dad also kept us very, very grounded.”
Rhodes was aware of Sprouse’s grace. She praised her young costar and his twin brother, Cole Sprouse, during a November interview with the Back to the Best podcast. Rhodes said the incident in question was one of her “favorite memories” from the production.
“Dylan had a line that was a fat joke, and he just kept skipping over it,” she explained. “It was like in the middle of a chunk of dialogue, so he kept skipping this laugh line and skipping it and skipping it and skipping it.”
When they taped the scene before a studio audience, an executive producer called “Cut!” and told him to “Say the line.”
“And he goes, ‘I would not disrespect any woman that way, let alone this woman. You write something funny and I’ll say it.’”
The Suite Life of Zack & Cody aired on Disney Channel for three seasons from March 2005 to September 2008, then had a sequel series and a 2011 TV movie.
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