Cole Sprouse Says He’s Never Reunited with Friends Cast Since Playing David Schwimmer’s Son on Hit Show (Exclusive)

Cole Sprouse is all smiles talking about Friends, on which he starred as Ben Geller between 2000 and 2002 starting at age seven.

“Friends has become now such an iconic thing, this entity,” he tells PEOPLE. “But I was only really on it for 10 episodes!”

Plus, he says, “I was a kiddo. So how I remember those 10 episodes is probably quite different to an older cast member who did a thousand episodes.”

But when Sprouse, now 31, is asked whether he’s since had any contact with those cast members — including David Schwimmer, who played his onscreen father Ross Geller — the Riverdale star reveals they’ve never met as adults. 

In the years since starring on the show, “I've actually never had the chance or never bumped into any of them,” the actor admits of Schwimmer, as well as Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc and the late Matthew Perry.

Not running into his former costars in Hollywood “is almost more rare than the opposite,” notes Sprouse with a laugh. “I thought for sure I would've bumped into them.”

Aniston, 55, was shocked to learn of Sprouse's “crazy” adult age in a 2023 interview alongside Adam Sandler.

"What?" Aniston asked, raising her hands above her head in surprise. “He was so little!"

Sprouse, who now stars opposite Kathryn Newton in director Zelda Williams and screenwriter Diablo Cody’s Lisa Frankenstein (in theaters now), has added plenty of credits to his résumé as an adult, including 2019’s Five Feet Apart with Haley Lu Richardson, 2022’s Moonshot with Lana Condor and seven seasons as Jughead Jones on Riverdale. He's also set to appear in the upcoming page-to-screen adaptation of Mason Deaver’s I Wish You All the Best.

But his onscreen appearances as a child, from 1990s comedy series Grace Under Fire to The Suite Life of Zack & Cody and its spinoffs with twin brother Dylan, remain numerous — and beloved.

“We never anticipated that it would've been such an important part of so many people's childhoods,” Sprouse tells PEOPLE of the Disney Channel sitcom. “It's really beautiful to see that people still have such a wonderful and nostalgic space still carved out for children's programming and our show.”

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The brothers remain close with “all the Suite Life cast and crew,” he says. Otherwise, “the only person that I have pretty consistent communication with from that period” is Sandler, his costar in the 1999 hit film Big Daddy. “I still talk to him,” the actor reveals. 

In a 2022 interview with PEOPLE, Sprouse said that — unlike the Friends cast — he has also run into Sandler at events.

“I really admire his career,” he said at the time. “He’s got a wonderful balance between art and commerce.”

For more on Cole Sprouse, pick up the latest issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands Friday, or subscribe here. 

Lisa Frankenstein is in theaters now.