How suite is this?!
On Wednesday, Brenda Song took a walk down memory lane to celebrate the 15th anniversary of The Suite Life of Zack and Cody. Taking to Instagram, the Disney alum shared a throwback picture from the show’s Halloween episode, where she and co-stars Dylan Sprouse, Cole Sprouse and Ashley Tisdale can be seen mid-scream.
“My actual reaction when I just read that it’s the 15th anniversary of the premiere #thesuitelifeofzackandcody !!” she captioned the post. “That’s insane! I’ve never felt so old. Hahaha. Such an incredible life changing time. Miss you gang!”
During the Disney Channel show’s 3-season run, Song played Tipton hotel heiress London Tipton, a role that would launch the Dollface star’s career and make her a household name. After the series wrapped in 2008, she joined Dylan and Cole for the Suite Life spin-off series The Suite Life on Deck, which followed the characters as they enrolled in a semester-at-sea program aboard the SS Tipton.
Looking back on the show 15 years later, there are several Suite Life secrets that will blow fans’ minds—starting with the fact that Song didn’t originally want the part of London, who was inspired by real-life socialite Paris Hilton.
In an interview with W Magazine, the Social Network star revealed that she had actually auditioned for Tisdale’s role of Maddie, a sarcastic brainiac that worked in the hotel, but the producers had something else in mind.
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“They were going full, true Paris Hilton parody,” Song told the outlet. “And when we read for the roles they were like, ‘No, actually, you guys switch parts.’ Hollywood wasn’t doing that then.”
In fact, Song shared that she almost passed up on the role altogether. When she had landed the gig at 15, she had also received early acceptance into Harvard University. Thankfully, her father encouraged her to pursue acting. She recalled him saying, “‘Here’s the thing. You have an amazing opportunity, if acting is what you want to do…You go to college to figure out what you want to do, but if this is what you want to do, you have an opportunity to do it.'”