The Sprouse twins started their careers early, appearing in different movies and even the sitcom Friends before getting their own Disney Channel series. While Dylan split off with the end of the series, Cole is still in the limelight–and has this actor picked up smoking?
Cole Sprouse does smoke. Sprouse often posts pictures of him smoking on Instagram, and shows no signs of quitting, as he has defended his right to smoke on multiple occasions.
Read more below to learn about Cole Sprouse’s smoking habit and how his fans have reacted.
The Right to Smoke
While choosing to smoke is any adult’s right, the health issues that it causes are enough to encourage anyone to stop. Sprouse, though, has often defended his right to smoke, no matter the consequences.
The thing is, smoking doesn’t only affect the person who smokes. It also affects the people around them–their family and close friends–as well as people physically close to them, who breathe in the second-hand smoke.
Sprouse’s case is different, meaning that he has even more eyes on him, watching his decisions. Many fans of his, especially the young ones, see his smoking and could be negatively impacted by it.
He’s never been quiet or private about his habit, often sharing posts on Instagram like this one that showcase and romanticize his smoking. For the caption of the picture, he wrote, “Real men eat their cigarette butts.”
Sprouse defends featuring smoking in many of his photoshoots as an artistic choice as well as being his own decision he made as an adult, but many fans don’t understand the difference. They only see one of their idols smoking, which puts a dangerous habit in a good light.
Fans have often taken their concerns to his Instagram comments, asking him not to smoke for his benefit as well as the benefit of his young supporters, who are most at risk of falling prey to the destructive habit. Some comments simply say, “Please don’t smoke,” while others express concern for his health or for the younger viewers.
Sprouse’s Response
Sprouse hasn’t responded to the comments asking him to stop, but posted this picture on Instagram captioned with a quote from the book Hollywood Portraits by Roger Hicks and Christopher Nisperos.
“[O]ne of the quickest ways to create a Hollywood ambiance is to hand your subject a cancer stick… and despite decades of rational, scientifically based propaganda to the contrary, there is no doubt that cigarettes did indeed have a certain glamour in Hollywood,” it reads.
The post goes on to defend the cigarette as a prop, giving the subject being photographed something to do with their hands.
While Sprouse is an adult and does have the right to smoke if he wants to, his complete defense of it is problematic for his younger fans, especially when he gained even more publicity in becoming Jughead Jones of the teen drama Riverdale.
With over 30 million Instagram followers, the actions he takes are impactful on impressionable audience members. Sprouse has his own way of addressing these concerns.
In 2019, he posted this photograph of a snowy landscape with a sign that says, “No smoking in this area.” The caption he chose for the post reads, “Smoking is bad for you and I make sure I cough next to anybody that does it just to remind them.”
It’s debatable whether this could be some sort of public service announcement or whether he’s poking fun at critics of the pictures he posts featuring him smoking. Commenters have had mixed responses, either pointing out the hypocrisy of the post or telling others that he’s being sarcastic.
While the meaning behind the post is unknown, it’s clear he’s not about to stop smoking in his photoshoots anytime soon.
Watch Cole Sprouse talking about some of the pictures he posts on Instagram in Vanity Fair’s YouTube video below.