Dylan Sprouse reacts to former colleague Miley Cyrus’ “very deserving” Grammy wins

Think back to the halcyon days of early-2000s Disney Channel. Teenage stars did messy wand IDs, the ultra-competitive Disney Channel Games were in full swing, and all of the commercials were for other Disney Channel properties. From the outside, it seemed like the coolest summer camp ever—especially when your favorite characters would randomly pop up in each other’s shows, like in the once-in-a-lifetime 2009 crossover episode, “Wizards On Deck With Hannah Montana.” It ruled, plain and simple.

While those days are long past for both Dylan Sprouse and Miley Cyrus, the former, at least, has kept tabs on his rockstar colleague all these years. In a recent interview with The A.V. Club, Sprouse reflected that Cyrus was “incredibly talented” in light of her two triumphant Grammy wins. “I think that she’s certainly deserving,” he continued. “She’s been a major talent for so, so many years, and I’m proud of her personally.”

In his answer, Sprouse did allude to some frustration with the Grammys as a whole. “The machine works in mysterious ways,” he said. “I do think those organizations are a machine.” This is far from a fringe belief. Last Sunday, Jay-Z called out the Recording Academy from their own stage for constantly passing over his wife—international superstar Beyoncé—for Album Of The Year when she’s won more Grammys than anyone else in history. Last year, SZA also characterized the ballroom as a “thirsty, dark space” (via NME). “The Grammy room is one of the weirdest rooms ever,” she said. “There is so much wanting in there. Wanting to be noticed, wanting to be acknowledged, to win, wanting to just be amongst n****s in the room, wanting to feel valuable or validated.”

For Sprouse, though, this underlying ickiness doesn’t take away from Cyrus’ victory. “Yeah, I think it’s well deserved,” he concluded. Although he may be a little biased—the two did date for one whole day when they were about 14 years old. (According to Dylan, the relationship ended the minute Nick Jonas walked by. We’ve all been there, buddy.)

Sprouse’s next film is the upcoming Beautiful Wedding, which will be available on demand February 13.