Brenda Song, who played London Tipton on The Suite Life of Zack & Cody, says she looks back on her Disney years feeling “underpaid and overworked.” She described working 10-to-15-hour days for 7 years, and said parts of her time on the show were “black holes.” As she put it, “I don’t remember years of my life.”
Discussing their experience on the Wildmen podcast, Song said she had a lovely time at Disney and credited it with giving them a platform. She also said they were lucky to have involved parents who protected them.
But looking back at the work and the money, she said, “we did actually pay them to work.” She was describing how the deal felt, rather than a literal payment to Disney.
Her co-star Dylan Sprouse, who played Zack Martin, says his only residual payment for The Suite Life was a 5-cent check tied to a Hannah Montana crossover. He shared the 5-cent figure on November 3. “I’m not joking,” he said.
Their co-star Phill Lewis, who played Mr. Moseby, described contracts that counted a calendar year’s filming as a single season, which he said let production avoid pay increases. Lewis also said scenes filmed across multiple weeks were later assembled into additional episodes the cast “didn’t get paid for.” He described a show that aired in more than 90 countries and ran 4 or 5 times a night.
Their co-star Kim Rhodes described a similar gap between reruns and financial security in July 2023. She said her house had been foreclosed on and her family had lost insurance while the show aired at least 8 times a week.
The original series produced 87 episodes between 2005 and 2008. Its follow-up, The Suite Life on Deck, added 71 episodes between 2008 and 2011. Both series remain available on Disney+.
Sprouse argued that comparable success on another network would’ve left “seven generations of children” financially secure. Song added, “We would have seven homes.”