The Cigarette That Made Dylan Sprouse Quit Smoking

Dylan Sprouse has revealed that a chance encounter with the late filmmaker David Lynch at the Chateau Marmont in Los Angeles inspired him to quit smoking cigarettes.

The former Disney Channel star shared the surreal story on the Not Skinny But Not Fat podcast, recounting how Lynch asked him for a cigarette before actress Laura Dern joined them in the smoking area.

Sprouse recounted the story on the Aug. 4 episode of the podcast, hosted by Amanda Hirsch.

The actor, who rose to fame alongside his twin brother Cole on The Suite Life of Zack & Cody, was dining at the storied Hollywood hotel with his wife, model Barbara Palvin, and friends when he recognized Lynch’s voice at a nearby table.

David Lynch’s Unexpected Request

“Behind me, I hear a voice which I just know is David Lynch,” Sprouse said. “I’m a massive David Lynch fan. I literally froze.”

Palvin encouraged him to approach the filmmaker, but Sprouse hesitated. “She was like, ‘Why don’t you just go up and say hi?’ And I was like, ‘No, no, no, no. I’m just gonna go have a cigarette,’” he recalled. Instead, he stepped outside to the smoking area to light up.

The decision led to what Sprouse would later call the only time he has ever been starstruck.

A Surreal Cigarette Exchange

As Sprouse prepared to light his cigarette, Lynch walked into the smoking area and asked, “Excuse me, young man, do you happen to have a cigarette?” Sprouse obliged, handing Lynch both a cigarette and a light.

The interaction then took an even stranger turn when Laura Dern entered the smoking area and sat down across from Lynch.

Dern asked Lynch if she could have a cigarette, and Lynch — who had been asking Sprouse for one moments earlier — pulled a fresh pack from his own pocket, handed her one, and lit it for her.

“I just want to tell you, you’re very polite. Thank you,” Lynch said before walking away.

Sprouse called the encounter a “legendary story” and concluded that no future cigarette could compare.

“I’ll never have a better cigarette than that in my entire life,” he said — and quit smoking as a result.

He theorized that Lynch, a filmmaker known for his surreal and deliberate storytelling, may have noticed his hesitation earlier in the evening and intentionally engineered the encounter as a gift.

Sprouse described it as a story “better than any picture, autograph, anything” — a fleeting moment that became a permanent turning point in his life.

Lynch died in 2025.

Sources

• Eonline