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Cole Sprouse Calls Out Disney For How Young Female Stars Were ‘Heavily Sexualized’

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Kay Smythe News and Commentary Writer
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Child star Cole Sprouse called out the Disney Channel for how his female co-stars were “heavily sexualized” from a young age in an interview published Monday.

Sprouse found fame in entertainment at just six months old and went on to lead shows like “The Suite Life of Zack and Cody” alongside his twin brother, Dylan, the New York Post reported. After graduating from New York University with a degree in archaeology, Sprouse promised his agent one more audition for the CW show “Riverdale,” according to The New York Times, and he was dragged back into the world of acting.

“I started acting when I was so young that I hadn’t actually attempted, as an adult, to think about if I really enjoyed performance. When I returned, I reminded myself that I do very much love the art of acting. But I still have a very complicated relationship to celebrity culture,” he told the NYT. (RELATED: Famous Child Star Freed From 9-Year Conservatorship, Reports From 2013 Suggest She Probably Needed One At The Time)

 

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“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 [Disney Channel] 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,” Sprouse told the NYT in a candid response to questions over the dichotomy of the child-star experience.

“And every single person going through that trauma has a unique experience. 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,” Sprouse concluded.

Sprouse’s acting career is far from over, as his new HBO Max rom-com “Moonshot,” was released at the end of March, according to Collider. “Riverdale” was just renewed for a seventh season, so Sprouse is firmly back in the entertainment career he was once set on leaving behind, NYT noted.