Dylan Sprouse Calls Child Acting “Child Labor,” Compares to “Coal Mines”

For his part, Dylan’s brother Cole has also shared insight into their unconventional childhood, explaining their mom put them into acting for financial stability.

“There’s two types of kids within the child acting business,” he said on the Call Her Daddy podcast in 2023. “There’s the ‘thespian children’ who choose to do it, and then there’s the working class kids that, in our case at least… I mean it started, really, as a means to put bread on the table.”

After Cole and Dylan’s dad was granted full custody of them at 10 years old, the pair’s career was re-evaluated and actually became “a huge boon.”

“By the time my brother and I got to the Disney Channel, we were good,” Cole continued. “It was in many ways a life-saving show. It provided us with an amount of stability and consistency, and routine, that really was needed for my brother and I at the time.”

Now, the Riverdale actor has kinder eyes for his childhood. 

“I don’t regret it at all,” he added. “I know that there’s definitely resentment, there’s definitely some things I have to work through, but no. If I were given the same choice again, I’d probably do it again.”

To learn more about other child stars and what they’re up to today, keep reading…