Emma Stone has won two Oscars, and she's best known for her performances in beloved movies like La La Land, Poor Things, Easy A and more. However, on her journey to becoming a household name, she took on some surprising roles, including one in The Suite Life of Zack & Cody. I was personally shocked to hear about this character she played in the Disney Channel classic...and so was Brenda Song.
Song recently reunited with her former Suite Life co-star Dylan Sprouse, appearing on his podcast, Wildmen, which he hosts with Brendan Columbus. The two got to talking about their lives as child actors and experiences on Suite Life, which led Song to recall a pretty great story about Emma Stone. She had bumped into the actress one time, and it was then that she learned that the Crazy Stupid Love star had indeed been on Suite Life; you just never saw her face:
You want to talk about Suite Life and how insane of a small world it is? So I run into Emma Stone, and I'm like, ‘Oh my god…’ She was the voice of [Ivana], [London’s] dog. Emma Stone was! And she goes, ‘No, no, we've met.’ She goes, ‘I was the voice of your dog!" And I was like, ‘What?!’ But it was like, it was so insane when she said that to me.
Yes, London Tipton’s dog, Ivana, did talk, very briefly, for one episode. The episode in question premiered during the first season in 2006, and it was called “Crushed." It saw London’s purebred Pomeranian falling for Maddie’s dog, Scamp, leading Ivana to talk to Scamp, as well as a Pomeranian of royal ancestry that London set her up with. The fact that Stone remembered her brief, one-off episode of Suite Life of Zack & Cody after who knows how many years is impressive. For Song, she was more so just wondering about the impression she left on Stone:
I remember when Emma told me that. I was like, ‘What?’ And she goes, ‘Yeah, we did. We met, but like we didn't really get to hang ‘cause they really got kept you guys like doing your own thing.’ And I was just like [to myself], ‘God, I hope you were nice.’
It does make me sad that Ivana only talked for one episode, as it would have been so fun to get more of her inner thoughts, especially considering how similar she was to her owner.
Plus, I just can’t get over the fact that Stone was even on Suite Life in the first place. It would have been fun to see her get more involved.
It was actually one of her first roles, and she was still going by Emily Stone. This does make me wonder if Suite Life were to ever get the reboot treatment, whether she’d be obliged to return for another one-off episode as Ivana Tipton. At the very least, it sounds like she has some fond memories of her time on the show, even if she wasn’t exactly allowed to be by the rest of the cast.
Meanwhile, Stone may not be voicing cute dogs on children’s TV anymore or even having random appearances on shows like iCarly, but she is as busy as ever, and I’m not just talking about starring in Oscar-nominated films. While she's working on a movie called The Catch, she was also one of the many A-list celebrities to show up for Druski at Studio 8H during his Saturday Night Live debut last weekend, joining Chris Rock, Walton Goggins, and more. So, she's staying busy, and in the spirit of her Zack & Cody role, she's popping up in surprising places.
Fans with a Disney+ subscription are able to watch Stone’s episode of The Suite Life of Zack & Cody. It's worth checking out the whole series too, seeing as a lot of stars have gone through the doors of The Tipton throughout the show’s three-season run, and it’s always fun to point out who else appeared on it.
