Cole Sprouse has got his fellow former child stars’ backs!
In a new interview with The New York Times, the 29-year-old Riverdale star, who found childhood fame alongside his twin brother Dylan on Disney Channel’s The Suite Life of Zack & Cody spoke out on early stardom and how their female counterparts had much worse of a time.
He addressed the thought that he and Dylan easily survived early fame, shutting it down by saying it was not the case — and that their female contemporaries had it so much worse back then:
“My brother and I used to get quite a bit of, ‘Oh, you made it out! Oh, you’re unscathed!’ No.
The young women on the channel we were on were so heavily sexualized from such an earlier age than my brother and I that there’s absolutely no way that we could compare our experiences. And every single person going through that trauma has a unique experience.”
Cole went on to speak out about how “fame is a trauma” and vehemently express how protective he is of the girls who were on Disney with him when he was younger:
“When we talk about child stars going nuts, what we’re not actually talking about is how fame is a trauma.
So I’m violently defensive against people who mock some of the young women who were on the channel when I was younger because I don’t feel like it adequately comprehends the humanity of that experience and what it takes to recover.”
After leaving their Disney days behind them, Cole and Dylan took a break from acting to go to college and get their degrees. Shortly after doing so, Cole was thrust back into the limelight once more with a starring role on Riverdale. He spoke about his second round at stardom:
“As I have now gone through a second big round of this fame game as an adult, I’ve noticed the same psychological effects that fame yields upon a group of young adults as I did when I was a child.
I just think people have an easier time hiding it when they’re older.”
