Cole Sprouse thinks billionaires going into space is "tremendously masturbatory".
Cole Sprouse isn't impressed by the billionaire space race
The 'Moonshot' actor is unimpressed by the likes of Elon Musk, Sir Richard Branson and Jeff Bezos and their leisure rocket trips because he believes "focus and resources" should be concentrated on problems on earth instead.
He said: "I think it’s tremendously masturbatory. It’s a ridiculous thing.
"When I was studying archaeology, we used to have this conversation about the resurrection of the mammoth. The conversation would always devolve into two camps: the camp that really wanted to see the mammoth walk the earth again. And the camp that was going, 'Hey, we have active species that are currently going extinct. If we put the resources you are talking about putting into the already extinct mammoth and shift that focus to the present, we could do way more good.'
"I feel like this conversation about space cowboys is very similar. I’m in the camp where I go, let’s focus on the present. We have an active space that we are living in that is currently decaying. We need to shift focus and resources to here."
The 29-year-old star admitted he isn't interested in taking a commercial flight into space because he'd be a "nervous wreck" as he's always so "paranoid" about taking a regular fight.
He told the New York Times newspaper: "I’m already such a paranoid freak when it comes to flying. I couldn’t imagine what my control-freak nature would do when we started taking off. I would be a nervous wreck."
Cole and his twin brother Dylan became household names thanks to their lead roles in Disney series 'The Suite Life of Zack and Cody' - which ran from 2005 to 2008 - and though a number of TV shows from that era have been revisited, he insisted they won't be doing the same.
He said: "I don’t think I’ll ever return to that. Not that I have a problem with other people doing the reboots thing. I’m just a big believer that if something is beautiful in the past, you should let it stay beautiful. To bring it into the future feels a bit like reheating a really good, fresh meal in the microwave. It would be hard to be in my 30s and go [in a deep growl], 'Zack and Cody are back, man!' "
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