Cole Sprouse once shared what it was like to work with Jennifer Aniston when he was just a child actor — and it wasn’t exactly smooth sailing.
Growing up under the constant gaze of TV screens, Sprouse landed a small but memorable role on Friends: he played Ben, the son of Ross Geller (David Schwimmer), appearing in just a handful of episodes.
Though his time on the show was brief, the experience made a lasting impression on him — especially when it came to working with Jennifer Aniston.
Despite not starring in Disney‑era classics like The Suite Life of Zack & Cody or films such as Big Daddy the way Sprouse’s twin brother once did, his stint on Friends came at such a formative age that it deeply impacted him.
Years later, Sprouse candidly admitted that working with Aniston was “really, really hard” — not because of the workload, but because of how much he admired her.
The awkward crush behind the scenes
Looking back in a 2017 interview, Sprouse didn’t hold back about how flustered he felt. “I was infatuated,” he told the New York Post.
“I was speechless — I’d get all bubbly and forget my lines and completely blank … It was so difficult.” Even though his time on Friends was limited, that powerful childhood crush made filming anything but easy.
He went on to describe the whole experience as “a really wonderful experience” overall, thanks to the kindness of the cast.
“The scale was just tremendous, and you felt it when you stepped on set, even as a kid,” he recalled. But stepping into scenes with such major stars as a small child was intimidating.
“It was challenging because I was a small kid who was working with these sort of megalithic actors at the time. It was quite intimidating.”
Looking back years later and reckoning with early fame
Sprouse also admitted that he’s had limited contact with the Friends cast since those early days. “If I saw any of them, I’d say, ‘Hello’,” he said.
“But it’s been a while, and I certainly don’t look the same, so it’d be a hard sell. And if I did look the same, that’d be a little disconcerting.”
Beyond that awkwardness, Sprouse has spoken openly about the darker side of child stardom. He reflected on the struggles he and his twin brother Dylan Sprouse faced growing up in the spotlight and discussed their complicated relationship with celebrity culture.
While many believed the pair had come through unscathed, Sprouse made it clear that their experiences couldn’t match those of the young women they worked alongside.
“The women were so heavily sexualised from such an earlier age than my brother and I that there’s absolutely no way that we could compare our experiences,” he told The New York Times.
He added that every child star’s journey through fame is unique and fraught with challenges. “And every single person going through that trauma has a unique experience. When we talk about child stars going nuts, what we’re not actually talking about is how fame is a trauma.”