Brenda Song Turned Down Harvard For ‘The Suite Life of Zack and Cody’
Remember Brenda Song? If you grew up with the Disney channel, you’d probably recognize her as London Tipton from their hit show from the 2000s, The Suite Life of Zack and Cody.
Well, now she’s back in the spotlight with her new Hulu show, Dollface, and we’re learning a lot more about who Song is as a person. It turns out that Song has a whole lot more brains than the ditzy character she played on Suite Life, and she even turned down a top-notch Ivy league university for her big breakout role.
Brenda Song is a talented actress
Song was one of Disney’s sweetheart back in the media corporation’s Hannah Montana and High School Musical glory days. Between the years of 2005 and 2008, she played the rich heiress of the fictional Tipton hotels, London Tipton, on The Suite Life of Zack and Cody.
The super-popular show starred twin actors Dylan and Cole Sprouse as two boys who lived in the Tipton Hotel with their single mother, a performer in the hotel lounge. The cast was rounded out by High School Musical star Ashley Tisdale, whose character works at the hotel’s candy counter.
After the original Suite Life went off the air, its spinoff show, Suite Life On Deck, premiered. Song and the Sprouse twins encored their characters, this time living on a cruise ship rather than a hotel.
Apparently, Song is still extremely close to her twin co-stars, and still sees them every time she’s visiting New York.
Brenda Song is smart
London Tipton is famous in the show for being beautiful and rich, but not exactly the smartest crayon in the box. That’s what made her so lovable and hilarious, though — her one-liners offered comedic relief to a show that was already really funny. This made Song one of the breakout stars of the entire franchise.
It turns out that Song really had to put her amazing acting skills to work to be able to play London. In real life, Song is very smart.
She shared in an interview with W Magazine that she actually got another incredible offer at around the same time that she got offered the role in Suite Life: she was accepted into Harvard University. We’re sure Song would have been successful in any path she chose to take but lucky for us fans, she decided to turn Harvard own for the Suite Life gig.
She shared that her dad was the person who gave her the extra nudge to go for Suite Life instead. “My dad, who’s a schoolteacher, sat me down and said, ‘Here’s the thing. You have an amazing opportunity, if acting is what you want to do. Education is the most important thing. You go to college to figure out what you want to do, but if this is what you want to do, you have an opportunity to do it,” she shared.
What is Brenda Song up to these days?
After Suite Life ended for good, Song (like many other child actors of the time) got rid of her squeaky-clean Disney girl image by starring in The Social Network, which included an intimate scene with her co-star. The film made it clear that Song wasn’t just a pretty face from Disney; she was a serious actor.
Nowadays, Song stars in Hulu’s original comedy series, Dollface. She’s apparently really happy with her life these days; she shared in the same interview: “I will say Dollface is my dream job.”
