Dylan Sprouse grew up on the Disney Channel with his twin brother Cole and the actor has now spoken out about the downsides of being a child star.
The siblings appeared on “The Suite Life of Zack & Cody” from 2005 to 2008, before they filmed spinoff series “The Suite Life on Deck” between 2008 and 2011. However, Dylan has since decided to take a step back from the limelight and when he went to work in a coffee shop as an “ex-Disney Channel star,” he admits people were a little confused.
He said of the term “former child star,” which is usually either uttered in a scandalous whisper or thrown in his face: “That term is so derogatory. Isn’t it always derogatory? Even ‘young actor’ sounds better.”
“You’re already in a box. But they put you in a smaller box inside that box. It also implies past tense. It implies you’ve already failed, right? I was actually naïve enough to think that people wouldn’t think of it in that way,” Dylan added to Vulture.
The star, who is getting ready to open his own brewery in Brooklyn, New York, went on to talk about the reason he and Cole (who currently plays Jughead on The CW’s “Riverdale”) eventually decided to walk away from their Disney Channel show.
“I mean, we had a really awesome idea for where the show needed to go. We were 18. If that isn’t old enough to know exactly what the show needs, then… well, I would beg to disagree,” he shared.
“I don’t think [Disney] were willing to work with us, really ever,” he added. “So we stopped the show.”
