Disney child star Dylan Sprouse compares growing up on set to child labour: ‘Some kids worked in coal mines'

He was one of the most recognisable faces of Disney's 2000s heyday, but Dylan Sprouse says the experience behind the scenes didn't feel like stardom as such, and compared it to exploitation.

The 34-year-old, who along with twin brother Cole became a household name playing Zack and Cody on The Suite Life of Zack and Cody, didn't hold back while discussing his early years in the industry on the September 1 episode of Wildmen, the podcast he co-hosts with writer-director Brendan Columbus. Bluntly summing up what it was like working from such a young age, Sprouse called it 'child labor.'

The remark came up as Sprouse and Columbus were catching up before welcoming their guest, Mark Indelicato, an actor Sprouse said he's known since he was about 12 or 13. The two reminisced about crossing paths professionally on an episode of The Suite Life built around auditioning for High School Musical, since Sprouse's co-star Ashley Tisdale starred in both franchises. Asked whether he'd had to sing and dance for the bit, Sprouse confirmed he had, joking, "I'm a Disney kid. I have to sing and dance" — while admitting it's not a skill set he particularly enjoys using outside of comedy.

It was from there that the conversation turned more serious. Sprouse, who called Indelicato "one of the most talented actors I know" and noted they had both essentially grown up on set, made the comparison that's now getting attention: "It's child labour. When you work a career at that age, some kids used to work in coal mines and guard the minecart door when they were 15; we just sang and danced. It's still child labour."

He added that revisiting the topic with Indelicato felt timely, since he still carries "some mental hurdles" as an adult continuing to work in the same industry that shaped his childhood, and wondered aloud whether some part of him is still, in a sense, chasing the version of acting he knew as a child.

Once Indelicato joined the conversation, he offered a blunt assessment of his own: "We're survivors, literally." Sprouse went on to describe the "workaholic attitude" he developed acting steadily between the ages of 8 and 17, comparing the routine to an actual job: "It's a full office job. I've described this to people a lot before. When you're working on television, it's a day job. You go in, you clock in, you clock out, you have a cubicle, you work obviously, it's, you know, you're on a stage and it's different, but it's the same hours."

That structure, he said, left a lasting mark, even the absence of it now creates a kind of unease. "Because we've been doing it for so long, it feels like my self-esteem, for a long time, was tied integrally to my ability to work and be on set," he explained. Indelicato related, saying he's dealt with his own anxiety during stretches without work.

For Sprouse, having his twin brother Cole go through the exact same experience, often literally side by side, as the two led The Suite Life together, gave him something many child actors don't get: someone who understood it firsthand. "I was lucky enough to have an identical twin who experienced the same exact thing, right?" he said.