Dylan Sprouse Just Revealed Why He Quit “World Of Warcraft” After An “Eye-Opening” Experience With Matt Damon
Dylan and Cole Sprouse were literally newborns when they made their acting debut in Grace Under Fire back in 1993, a role that they shared for five years.
Then, in 2005, the twins landed their own Disney TV show, The Suite Life of Zack & Cody, at the age of just 12.
The sitcom was a huge success and ran until 2008. Dylan and Cole reprised their roles later that same year in the spin-off series, The Suite Life on Deck, which ended three years later.
By this point, the actors were in their late teens and drifted away from acting to focus on their studies.
They both enrolled in further education at NYU's Gallatin School of Individualized Study, with Cole focusing on humanities and archaeology, while Dylan studied video game design.
The pair graduated in 2015, and both returned to the acting world, however, they have not appeared on screen together since retiring their characters Zack and Cody.
But in a recent appearance on Live with Kelly and Mark, Dylan revealed that this hasn’t necessarily been their decision, as he pointed out that the roles available for twins usually aren’t that great.
When asked if he’d like to work with his brother again, Dylan said: “I hope so, I hope so. I will say, though, there’s not very many good roles for twins in general. It’s usually pretty hokey.”
He then revealed that Cole gets “bitter” when movies cast one actor to play twins, such as Tom Hardy in Legend, Armie Hammer in The Social Network, and Lindsay Lohan in The Parent Trap.
“I remember Cole distinctly being kind of bitter about Tom Hardy being a twin,” Dylan explained. “He doesn’t like when people play two different real people.”
However, Dylan went on to admit that even if the Legend producers were casting real-life twins, it’s unlikely that he and Cole would have gotten the gig.
“I looked at him, and I was like: ‘Cole, I don’t think they were looking for guys like that to play that role, anyway. If they’re hiring Tom Hardy!'” he quipped.
Dylan went on to reveal that he is actually focusing on executive producing more than acting, and said that if he and Cole were to collaborate on a project again, then they’d probably have to make it themselves.
He then shared his idea of casting his brother in every movie that he produces, only to kill him off each time.
Referencing the character of Kenny in the animated series South Park, Dylan said: “I thought that would be funny, where he’s on screen for five minutes and then explodes.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Dylan gave his version of events to an anecdote involving Matt Damon that Cole shared back in April.
During an appearance on Kelly’s podcast, Let’s Talk Off Camera with Kelly Ripa, Cole revealed that he and Dylan rudely snubbed Matt when the Hollywood actor came to meet them on the set of Suite Life at the height of their fame.
“My brother and I were in set school at the time, and we were really into World of Warcraft,” Cole told Kelly at the time. “One of the PAs comes knocking on the set school door and goes: ‘Oh, you guys won’t believe it, Matt Damon is going to be here today. His kids love the show, so he’s going to be here in, like, 30 minutes.’”
“And I remember Dylan and I turning to each other and just going: ‘Ugh, I can’t believe we have to get off World of Warcraft right now.’ We must have been 15,” he went on. “Sure enough, 30 minutes, Matt Damon knocks on the door, and there’s every crew member behind him in the hall just looking, like, amazed at Matt Damon. And I don’t know if we even turned away from our computers to say ‘hi’ — this is how ridiculous we were as children!”
“I think he came in and was like: ‘Hey guys, wow, so nice to meet you!’ and we were like: ‘Hey man, hey, how are you doing?” and went right back to the game,” Cole added. “I look back on that story now, and I actually love it. Because the whole ethos of whatever was around us didn’t really affect us more than we were just being kids and playing video games.”
And on Wednesday, Kelly couldn’t resist asking Dylan about his memories of this moment — and he revealed that it was actually a “pretty eye-opening” experience for him.
“Here’s what I’ll say,” Dylan began. “I was the member of a very active World of Warcraft guild, and we had particular raiding days, OK? So the week leading up, everyone was very excited Matt Damon was coming around and I immediately knew there was going to be a problem because it was a raid day.”
“So, when Matt Damon did come around — even my dad visited the set, which was rare for him — and Matt Damon knocked on the door of the school room, and he walked in like: ‘Hey boys, good to see you!'” he continued. “I remember distinctly turning over my shoulder while playing in a raid and being like: ‘Ugh, I don’t really have time for this.’”
“Eventually, I got up, my character died in the game, I got up and greeted him, and I remember rushing back over,” Dylan added. “And my dad, who you’ve met, grabbed me by the shoulder and he goes: ‘If I ever see you do that again, you will never be playing videos games again.’ And I actually quit World of Warcraft after that; it was pretty eye-opening.”
Dylan went on to admit that he regrets how he treated Matt, who he hasn’t seen since.
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