We could call this “The one where they all got back together”: as you might already
know, after years of pleading from fans “Friends” reunion is finally happening.
We are excited to see the main characters’ reprises as much as you are, but let’s not
forget about the reprise that already took place in September 2019, when the show’s
official Instagram account posted a picture of 27-year-old Ben Geller, sitting on the
Central Perk couch with Hugsy the penguin.
In case you didn’t know, Ben Geller was portrayed by Cole Sprouse – yeah, this very
guy from “Riverdale”, who has a twin brother, and who was... forced into acting by his mother
because their family needed money.
What a twist!
Hold on now: before we reveal unknown facts about one of the TV's most adorable kids,
subscribe to the “Rumour Juice” YouTube channel for exciting celebrity stories every
day.
Sprouse, together with his twin brother Dylan, began appearing on TV in 1993 when both were
only eight months old.
In a now-deleted audio clip that Cole posted on Tumblr in 2013, he explained that the brothers
got into acting because of their mom.
After enjoying massive success on the Disney-Channel
show "The Suite Life of Zack and Cody", Cole and Dylan decided to take a break from acting.
Guess what the teenagers considered as the most productive way of leaving the industry?
Right: they went to college.
When Cole began attending New York University, he decided to focus on humanities and archeology.
Luckily, Sprouse’s curiosity wasn’t blown away during the studies, but he didn’t work
much in the field either.
As far as we know, Cole participated in some excavations and performed lab work, but that
was it.
He was also the president of the undergrad archeology club, which would have made his
TV dad Ross Geller proud.
Here’s how the actor commented on the college years after graduation in 2015:
"We’ve tried to do right, to fix some of the negative stereotypes of child stardom.
We've had some bumps, but I'm so glad we went to Uni."
During the interview with Teen Vogue, Cole’s brother Dylan admitted that both actors pulled
the classic twin switcheroo at graduation and accepted each other's diplomas.
We didn’t mix anything up by calling the Sprouses actors, because that’s exactly
how they perceived themselves at the time.
Cole and Dylan decided to return to acting right after the college years were over.
We might presume that the grown-up brothers sought independence and didn’t want to be
associated with each other anymore.
The only time Cole wasn’t co-starring Dylan was while playing Ben Geller in “Friends”,
and still Dylan was replacing him on set sometimes.
Things changed though: you won’t find a movie or series they worked on together after
2012, but there’s still a bunch of successful projects they have been involved in independently.
You might be curious about what made Cole change his mind and return to the business,
but there are no exact answers to that: apparently, he wanted to live a normal life for a while
and try different things, and that’s exactly what he did.
Before the official comeback to the industry, Cole had a job that wasn’t related to either
acting or archeology.
During a 2017 interview on "Late Night with Seth Meyers”, the actor said he's always
been a big fan of comics, so he used to work at a comic-book store in LA for some time.
Funny enough, later on, he landed a role in "Riverdale” – the series based on the
"Archie" comic books.
Cole’s part on the series was a huge success at the time, and let’s be honest: Jughead
Jones keeps melting our hearts even now.
If you were among fans, who claimed that Cole had to come back in new episodes of “Riverdale”
just because he doesn’t have a lot of other upcoming projects, we’re afraid this argument
wasn’t strong enough: his life is not turning around acting.
In fact, besides acting, archeology and comics Cole has other hobbies and things he could
do if he decides to give up acting again.
First of all, Sprouse is a great photographer.
In 2011, he launched a personal photography website.
Since then he has worked for major fashion magazines.
The actor has built up quite a portfolio of his photography, and now much of it is published
on his Instagram account.
Sprouse’s other Instagram account is called @camera_duels.
It's filled with photos of fans trying to take sneaky pictures of the actor, followed
by the humorous captions.
Besides Instagram, Cole is very active on Twitter: his posts make people laugh out loud.
Despite all the contradictive thoughts the 27-year-old had on his acting career, he told
Hunger Magazine in 2017 he was actually happy to be a child actor:
"I don't regret anything about my younger career, mainly because we were children and
didn't have too much power, but also because it gave us the privilege to be where we are
now.”
He also said that working as a kid eased a lot of the burdens that people live with day-to-day.
We would love to ease your burden as well by saying that Cole Sprouse will appear in
the “Friends” reunion, but we can only guess.
By the way, what do you think about that?
Share your thoughts in the comments below the video.
And let’s hope to see the actor in the upcoming episodes of our favorite show!