Dylan Sprouse Reveals Why He Refused to Tell a ‘Fat Joke’ About Costar on ‘Suite Life’
You can count on actor Dylan Sprouse to speak up when he doesn’t agree with his lines, something that was evident while starring on The Suite Life of Zack and Cody in the 2000s.
The actor, 31, refused to make a scripted fat joke against his pregnant on-screen mom, played by Kim Rhodes, and during a Thursday, August 1, appearance on Sirius XM’s “Andy Cohen Live,” Sprouse revealed why.
“[I] just don’t really think fat jokes are funny,” Sprouse explained. “There’s a better joke somewhere else, unless you’re talking about yourself."
Sprouse, who played Zack alongside his twin brother Cole, who portrayed Cody, said the only exception was poking fun at himself rather than a costar.
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"Unless [the joke] is self-referential, which I find is fun,” he said. “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.”
Rhodes, 54, previously shared that one of favorite memories on set was Sprouse standing up for her during her pregnancy and refusing to say an offensive line. (Rhodes welcomed a daughter with husband Travis Hodges in 2008).
“He just kept skipping over it,” Rhodes recalled during an episode of the “Back to the Best” in November, 2023. “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.”
The refusal drew the ire from an executive producer who allegedly tried to force Sprouse to say the line, but the child star wouldn’t do it.
“He goes, ‘I would not disrespect any woman that way, let alone this woman. You write something funny and I’ll say it.’ That’s my little man,” Rhodes recalled, adding that Cole also supported her at the time.
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Sprouse, who was only 15 at the time of the incident, joked it was his ego that made him put his foot down and refuse to follow the script, despite the pressure from adults involved in the production.
“I mean, you’d be amazed at what having your own show at 11 will do for your confidence,” The Beautiful Disaster star said.
He added, “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."
The Suite Life of Zack and Cody aired from 2005 to 2008 before the twins reprised their roles in the spinoff series, The Suite Life on Deck, which kicked off in 2008 and ran for three seasons.
