'Suite Life of Zack & Cody' Mom Kim Rhodes Says Dylan Sprouse Refused to Tell Fat Joke at Her Expense

Actress Kim Rhodes spoke highly of Dylan and Cole Sprouse in a recent interview looking back on The Suite Life of Zack and Cody. The twins played the titular tweens on the Disney Channel series while Rhodes played their single mother, and during the filming, she was pregnant for a while. However, Rhodes remembered a time when Dylan refused to read a line picking on her for her physique, saying it was disrespectful and not funny.

Rhodes was on the Back to the Best podcast last week, reflecting on her career including her role as Carey Martin on The Suite Life of Zack and Cody. She became pregnant during the show's three-year run, but her character on the show did not. The series adjusted by filming her from different angles, changing her outfits and simply featuring her less in those episodes, but Rhodes said that primarily, "of course, the show dealt with it by making fat jokes."

"One of my favorite memories is that Dylan had a line that was a fat joke and he kept skipping over it," she recalled. "It was in the middle of a chunk of dialogue, so he kept skipping this laugh line and skipping it, and skipping it, and skipping it. Finally, we get in front of the studio audience, and he skips it, and the executive producer screams: 'Cut!'"

Rhodes didn't name the producer, but said: "He goes: 'Dylan, say the line.' And [Dylan] goes, 'I would not disrespect any woman that way, let alone this woman. You write something funny and I'll say it.' That's my little man. They're both my little men, they both were very protective of everyone on set."

Rhodes had other stories about how mature and thoughtful the Sprouse twins were, even back then when they were between 12 and 15 years old. She was one of the main cast members who went on to the sequel show, The Suite Life on Deck as well. Rhodes has gone on to roles in Supernatural, Switched at Birth, Colony and last year's reboot of Kung Fu, among other shows and movies.

The Sprouses, of course, have continued acting and have been praised for their maturity and solidarity by other colleagues as well. Cole starred in all seven seasons of The CW's Riverdale series while Dylan's recent surprise hit was the Chinese action film The Curse of Turandot in 2021. Both twins have new projects on the horizon, including movies in post-production. You can stream The Suite Life shows on Disney+.