Brenda Song has opened up about the frightening moment she passed out while shooting a hot tub scene for The Suite Life of Zack and Cody.
The 38-year-old actor starred on the Disney Channel sitcom from 2005 to 2008 alongside twins Cole and Dylan Sprouse, who played the show’s central characters.
During an appearance on Dylan’s Wildmen podcast Tuesday, Song remembered feeling increasingly unwell as the scene unfolded.
“I just remember breathing heavily and my chest felt really hot. I thought, ‘Am I having a panic attack?’” she said.
“Then suddenly I remember seeing stars, and after that, I was gone,” Song added.
Dylan explained that the other actors in the tub had already begun complaining that the water was dangerously hot. However, the problem was not fully addressed until Song lost consciousness after the temperature reportedly reached 250 degrees.
The conversation also touched on the demanding conditions surrounding the hit Disney series, with Song saying she believed the cast was “underpaid and overworked.”
Brenda Song has described fainting while filming a hot tub scene for The Suite Life of Zack and Cody; pictured in February
The former child star appeared on the Disney Channel series from 2005 to 2008 alongside Cole and Dylan Sprouse, as well as Ashley Tisdale
Dylan joked that Song’s collapse was the moment everyone on set finally recognized how serious the situation had become.
“If you didn’t pass out, you wouldn’t have said anything,” he said. “But once you passed out, everybody on set went, ‘Oh, s**t, this is really real.’”
He added that people could suffer severe burns, but the danger apparently did not register with the crew until Song fainted, teasing her for having an unusually high tolerance for discomfort.
Although Song said she had “a lovely time” making the series, she also backed up Dylan’s earlier comments that the actors did not receive residual payments.
“When I look back, I think, ‘Oh my God, we actually paid them to work.’ We basically did,” she said.
Song also suggested that everyone involved with the show should have been financially secure for life.
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Dylan said that if the sitcom had aired on another network, “we would have seven generations of children who wouldn’t have to worry about what they did for money.”
“We would have seven homes,” Song added, before acknowledging the important role the show played in launching her career.
“Disney gave us a platform to be sitting here right now,” she said. “So it’s very hard to complain about certain things.”
“I just remember breathing heavily and my chest felt really hot. I thought, ‘Am I having a panic attack?’” Song said during her appearance on Dylan’s Wildmen podcast Tuesday (Source: Wildmen/YouTube)
Dylan said the tub’s extreme heat was not properly addressed until Song fainted after the temperature reportedly reached 250 degrees (Source: Wildmen/YouTube)
Song played hotel heiress London Tipton and later reprised the character in the spinoff The Suite Life on Deck, which ran from 2008 to 2011
Song portrayed hotel heiress London Tipton on The Suite Life of Zack and Cody and later returned to the role for the spinoff The Suite Life on Deck, which aired from 2008 to 2011.
Away from acting, she is raising two sons with her fiancé, actor Macaulay Culkin, 46.
Earlier this month, Dylan told his former Suite Life co-star Phill Lewis on Wildmen that he had received just one residuals check for the series.
The payment came from a 2006 crossover episode that brought Dylan and his twin brother Cole together with another major Disney Channel show, Hannah Montana, starring Miley Cyrus.
Dylan, who played alongside Lewis’s hotel manager character Marion Moseby, said the payment was so small it was not enough to buy a cup of coffee.
He revealed that the check amounted to only five cents, raising the possibility that printing it cost more than the payment itself.
“At a time when residuals would have been great, there wasn’t a single paycheck for what was arguably one of the most popular shows,” he said.
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