15 Things You Didn't Know About Cole Sprouse

The Suite Life of Zack and Cody was one of the funniest shows on Disney channel, and even though the series ended a few years ago after transitioning to The Suite Life on Deck, we still remember it fondly. After all, who could forget Zack and Cody's hilarious hijinks at the Tipton Hotel? Dylan and Cole Sprouse, who played the twins, took a break from acting after the show wrapped, but Cole is making his return to the screen with his new role as Jughead in the series Riverdale. Cole once played the nerdy, goofy Cody, but his new role is definitely darker and more brooding.

Even though The Suite Life ended a while ago, the Sprouse twins maintained a pretty active social media presence in their years off. Cole, in particular, is super active on Twitter and Instagram. Here are 15 things you probably didn't know about Cole Sprouse!

15 Cole's mom got the twins into acting

Cole has stated that he never would have gotten into acting if it wasn't for his mom. In fact, he probably does not even remember his first acting job! When he was young, he wasn't super interested, but eventually, he grew to like the artistic process behind acting. When the Sprouse family moved to California, the twin's mother began bringing them to acting auditions to help bring in some more money for the family. They weren't financially stable at the time, and since the boys were identical twins, they had a pretty good shot at picking up work in the acting industry because both actors could play the same role. Directors love this because there are limits on how long child actors can work. Their first role was in a commercial for diapers when they were only eight months old. The boys were switched every few seconds during the filming process!

14 He studied archaeology at NYU

Many people know that after The Suite Life ended, Cole and Dylan were both accepted to New York University. They deferred their acceptance for a year, and then attended from 2011 to 2015. They attended school full time and put acting totally on hold while they were earning their degrees. Cole chose to study archaeology during his time at NYU. He wanted to do something completely different from acting in order to learn more about the world. He didn't see the need to continue studying something that he already had a real-world education in and could always return to later. Cole actually did continue working in this field after he graduated. He chose to stay in New York, and he was working at an archaeology lab in Brooklyn up until he began filming for Riverdale. It's pretty cool that he took the chance to learn something totally new outside of acting.

13 He went to college because he didn't want to burn out like many child stars

Many people wondered exactly when Dylan and Cole chose to step away from acting for a few years and go to college instead. Cole says that this was a deliberate choice. He did not feel he could go much further acting in shows that were similar to The Suite Life, and he wanted to break out of the Disney channel mold. However, he also did not want to experience the “identity crisis” that many other young Disney channel stars like Miley Cyrus went through. He says that he wanted to “fade out” for a couple years so that he could figure out who he really was and what else he was genuinely interested in. Although some fans were upset by their decision, it definitely seems like it was a good idea for the twins, and Cole's reasoning totally made sense. The real world isn't like Hollywood, and education is a valuable thing.

12 He's super into photography

Besides acting and archaeology, Cole has some other hobbies as well. For example, in recent years he has gotten super into photography. You can see lots of examples of his work on his Instagram account! You might think that this was just another hobby for him, but when you start digging into his work, you can see that he is definitely talented. Cole has become very passionate about photography, and he has admitted that if he wasn't acting, he would want to work as a photographer full time! Maybe all those years of being in front of the camera prepared him to get behind it one day! When it comes to his style, he admits that he likes the thrill and the aesthetic of shooting in places that are technically off limits so yes, he ignores those “no trespassing” signs on abandoned sites and just goes for it. Hey, it's for the art!

11 Jennifer Aniston was his first celebrity crush

Those of you who are big fans of Friends may remember Cole from his days of playing Ross's son, Ben. This is one of his few childhood roles that he did not share with Dylan. He was so adorable as Ben, and we're sure the cast of Friends thought so too! In fact, Cole has admitted that sometimes he struggled a little to keep his cool on the set of Friends. Why? Well, he had a little crush on Jennifer Aniston! To be fair, who didn't? Jennifer was basically Cole's first crush, and he has said that during shooting, he would sometimes get a little distracted whenever she was around. We can't blame you, Cole, there's a reason why Ross and Joey were both totally in love with Rachel on and off throughout the series. We're sure that she would be flattered to hear that Cole admired her so much!

10 He can't stand Donald Trump

If you follow Cole on Twitter, you know that he's not afraid to get a little political! Since he has a pretty big platform, he wants to use it to speak out about important issues in our society today. And one of those issues is the current state of the American political system. Cole has been known to post some serious anti-Trump tweets, and while some people have given him flack and told him to stick to acting, most of his fans appreciate that he uses his platform to speak up for people who are being hurt by the Trump administration. In fact, Cole believes that more celebrities should be speaking out against the current administration. Recently, he tweeted, “Your brand is not in jeopardy by public opposition to Trump. Your nation is in jeopardy without it.” You go, Cole, speak your mind and stand up for what you truly believe in!

9 Just like Cody was younger than Zack, Cole is actually younger than Dylan

On The Suite Life, Zack used to always tease Cody about the fact that he was the older brother. Whenever Zack happened to know something that Cody didn't (a rare occurrence), he would attribute it to the fact that he was older and wiser. Of course, this enraged Cody, who would always reply, “Only by ten minutes!” Since Cody knew that he was, in fact, wiser, it always irked him that he was the younger twin. In real life, Cole is actually younger than Dylan! Dylan is actually fifteen minutes older, and just like in the show, Dylan loved to give Cole a hard time about it. Cole has said that growing up, Dylan would often joke about the fact that he was fifteen minutes older than Cole. In some ways, the twins are very different from their characters on screen, but in some ways, they are actually pretty similar!

8 He walked away with Dylan's diploma at their college graduation

What else would you expect from these two? Yes, it sounds like the kind of prank they would pull off on an imaginary episode of The Suite Life of Zack and Cody: College Edition. And they pulled it off in real life! Since the twins both attended the same college, they graduated on the same day. While many large universities such as NYU have separate graduation ceremonies depending on the program, Cole and Dylan were participating in the same ceremony. Dylan walked away with Cole's BA in Archaeology, while Cole had Dylan's BA in Video Game Design. The boys have said that they knew no one would notice if they went up for each other's diplomas, so they figured why not just go ahead and pull off a classic twin prank? They succeeded, and now they'll always have that funny story from their graduation day. Definitely a Zack and Cody move.

7 He keeps a journal and writes every day

Cole clearly has a sensitive side, you can tell from his hobbies that he's a very artsy guy. Besides acting and photography, he also likes to write, but only for his personal benefit. We bet that he's pretty talented at it though, and we would love the chance to read some of his work some day! Cole said that when he was younger, he began keeping a journal and wrote in it every day. He said that at one point, he even got Dylan to begin keeping a journal. It's pretty tough to imagine it since we're so used to Dylan's carefree portrayal of Zack, but he must have an artsy side too! Perhaps writing is another passion that Cole will pursue more seriously one day on a professional level, and if he ever did choose to go down that route, we would be totally ready. Perhaps screenwriting is in his future?

6 He has Italian citizenship

Fun fact about the Sprouse twins: they were not born in America! Nope, the boys were actually born in Italy (and as we learned earlier, Dylan was born exactly fifteen minutes earlier). Why were there parents living in Italy? Well, they were actually teaching English there at the time. This is a pretty common way for Americans to earn money and travel overseas at the same time. After the twins were born, their parents continued to live there for a few more months. When Dylan and Cole were four months old, their family moved back to the United States and settled in California for what ended up being a long time! This is when the boys' mother first started to bring them to auditions and how they got into acting. Cole actually still has dual citizenship in the United States and Italy, so he could easily move back one day if he wanted.

5 He dated fellow NYU student Bree Morgan in college

Cole typically does not date other famous people as a guy who seems pretty down to earth, he probably wants to date girls who are also laid back and low maintenance. While at NYU, Cole dated a fellow college student named Bree Morgan. They began dating in 2013 and broke up some time in 2015. These two were adorable together, and Cole's fans were pretty upset when they heard about the split. Bree shared Cole's passion for video games, and she often liked to post cute selfies of the two of them. They seemed like a match made in heaven, but sadly, it was not meant to be. They ended up splitting, and since then, she has deleted some of those selfies. Bree ended up moving away to attend a different school, and it seems that this is where their relationship went downhill. It's too bad they seemed like a happy couple!

4 He wants to see asexual representation in Riverdale

Cole's character on the new show Riverdale, Jughead, was actually written as asexual in the original Archie comics, which the show is based off. What does that mean? Well, to sum it up, it means that the comic version of Jughead didn't feel the need to get intimate with anyone. He could fall in love with people just like anyone else and might even want to have a relationship with them, but the idea of hooking up with someone did not interest him. People who are asexual might still form deep emotional attachments to other people and desire a romantic relationship with them, but as far as hook ups go, it's just not on their radar. This type of character isn't represented often, so Cole wants the right to explore the topic in the next season of Riverdale. He wants young people who feel the same way to see themselves represented.

3 He says he felt like he lived in The Truman Show after his Disney days

Have you ever seen the film The Truman Show? Jim Carrey stars as Truman Burbank, a man who finds out that his entire life was merely the plot of a hugely popular reality show. Naturally, this shakes him up mentally, and he basically ends up on a quest to discover what in his world is real and what is just a fabrication by the show's producers. Cole has said that after the twins wrapped filming on The Suite Life, he kind of felt like he was living in his own version of The Truman Show for a while. After being on a television show for so long, he felt like life in Hollywood wasn't quite real, and that so much of his identity had been crafted based on his character Cody instead of who he really was. This is one reason he wanted to go to college instead of acting.

2 He never missed a day of work over eight years of filming The Suite Life

Even though Cole has criticized the Disney channel at times, he remains grateful for the time he spent on The Suite Life. He says that it taught him many important lessons about acting and that working on the show also taught him how to develop a good work ethic. Cole says that over the course of eight years filming The Suite Life, he never missed a single day of work! That's super impressive, especially for a young kid. No word on Dylan's attendance record but we're inclined to believe that he may have missed an extra day or two, but maybe he differs from his character when it comes to work ethic! Dylan and Cole also had to work hard when they were not filming. The boys had a tutor on set, and they both earned good grades, even taking AP classes on set during the final years of the show. Impressive!

1 He didn't intend on going back to acting until he read the Riverdale script

When Cole's time on The Suite Life was over, he did not know if he would ever go back to acting. Obviously, his next step was to get a college education and earn his degree, but after that, he did not know what life had in store for him. After graduation, he was still working in the archaeology field and did not have any immediate plans to go back into acting, but he knew that it was a more lucrative career path. He decided to audition for one new show per week and see if he found any roles that he felt were artistically “fulfilling.” When his manager sent him the Riverdale script, he was actually resistant to the idea, but after seeing the changes that the producers had made since the comics, he realized that it actually would be a good fit for him, and he's enjoying his time on the show.