Not everyone was living the sweet life on Disney’s The Suite Life of Zack and Cody and The Suite Life on Deck. According to an interview on YouTube, Brenda Song (Zootopia 2, The Fifth Wheel), who played rich heiress London Tipton on both shows, said she felt “underpaid and overworked” at times while working on both shows.
Song made the comments on Dylan Sprouse’s (Under Fire, Neglected) podcast, Wildmen. Sprouse is known for portraying Zack Martin on both series, and Song asked him directly if he had any memory of shooting certain episodes, saying, “I’ve been curious to ask you about this. I feel like there are parts of the Suite Life that are, like, black holes for me. Like, I don’t remember years of my life.”
Song does concede that, while she felt at times that she was paying Disney rather than the other way around, she did not have very many crazy experiences while filming the show, unlike some child stars. “I always say this about my time at Disney,” Song said. “I know everybody has their own journey… I always say, like, I have a boring tale. I didn’t have this crazy, like, ‘Oh my God, this was so — I had a lovely time.”
However, Song also noted that filming both series was a taxing experience at times, even if it was a positive experience in her life, saying, “The only thing that was hard about that time was I feel like we were underpaid and overworked. But Disney did give us a platform to be sitting here right now, so it’s very hard to complain about certain things.” So, it seems fans can rest easy knowing that the Suite Life cast had a good time while filming the series — even if, at times, the show’s revenue was not up to par with the amount of work the cast put into the show.