‘Suite Life’ Star Phill Lewis Reveals He Said No to Playing Mr. Moseby After Hearing Disney’s Offer

Two decades after the Tipton Hotel first opened its doors to Disney Channel viewers, its stars are still swapping stories from behind the scenes. In a heartfelt reunion, two former castmates looked back on a tense contract negotiation and the bond that grew on set.

Phill Lewis almost never became the Mr. Moseby fans know and love from Disney's hit 2000s show "The Suite Life of Zack and Cody." The actor recently revealed that he initially turned down the role because of the pay.

Lewis opened up about the casting process during a reunion with former co-star Dylan Sprouse on his "Wildmen" podcast. "I get a call from my agent, says they're doing a new show and they want you to come in and read for it because they loved what you did for 'Stuck in the Suburbs,'" Lewis recalled.

"I get the script, and it's obviously the Moseby character. I go in and I read and they obviously like what I did," he continued. From there, he was invited back for a chemistry read with the mom character, a role that ultimately went to Kim Rhodes.

"After the chemistry read, they said that they wanted to offer me the job, and then they told me how much they were going to pay me per week, and we said no," he admitted. While Lewis insisted that he's not "very expensive," he called their offer "crazy."

So, he passed on the part and chose to keep moving forward with "Stuck in the Suburbs." However, that wasn't the end of the story.

"They kept coming back, and they kept sweetening the deal, and they would go, 'Well, all right. We'll pay him this amount per week, but we'll also throw in a movie,'" Lewis explained. "So I did 'Dadnapped,' the movie 'Dadnapped' for them, where they paid me a good chunk of change to kind of offset what they weren't paying per week."

Once his deal was finalized, Lewis was introduced to his fellow cast members, among them Dylan and his twin, Cole Sprouse. Even two decades on, he can still picture heading home after the table read and telling his wife, "Those two boys are [expletive] funny."

Even though the brothers were only 11, Lewis said they already had the poise of seasoned performers with a natural feel for comedy. In his view, the series had what it took to last as long as Dylan and Cole were leading it.

Dylan, now 34, returned the compliment, describing Lewis as a father figure to the young cast and a powerful presence on set.

"I don't think that [the] show would have felt like the family, nor would it have survived even two years without you because you were the father of the set and you were leading us through this in a way that was with such a begrudging joy, is what I would say," Dylan said.

"It really did feel like it was possible," he added. Elsewhere in the episode, Dylan revealed that Lewis continued to influence his life long after the show ended in 2008.

"Part of the reason I was so excited to have you in here today, Phill, is because I do feel like, in a time where... both my brother and I, our lives were in a lot of disarray when we started the show," Dylan explained, adding that they "didn't know if we wanted to act again when the show ended."

The twins later stepped away from acting to attend college, but Dylan said the "thing that continuously drove me into thinking I wanted to get back into acting was truly the time that I spent learning and acting alongside you."

Dylan conceded that he and his brother might have had some natural acting talent, but he was adamant that the show wouldn't be anything without Lewis.

"It really wouldn't be, and I love you so much, and I'm so happy that you came in and joined us on this pod so we can chat about it," Dylan gushed. "I will always be your number one fan."