‘Malcolm in the Middle’ mom says ‘common sense’ saved Frankie Muniz from child star downfall
Frankie Muniz always had "great common sense," according to TV mom Jane Kaczmarek.
"He always had a really great common sense about him," Kaczmarek, who reunited with Muniz for the revival of the early 2000s hit "Malcolm in the Middle," told Fox News Digital. "He was always a good kid. He never got into a lot of the trouble that I think some actors can."
Bryan Cranston, who is also returning as Muniz’s father in "Malcolm in the Middle: Life's Still Unfair," added that the now-40-year-old doesn’t drink or do drugs.
"He never has. Nope. And he's always been very ambitious and very curious," Cranston said.
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The "Breaking Bad" actor said that when they worked together on the original series when Muniz was a teenager, he would sometimes try to make suggestions about how to handle his money responsibly.
"For example, he bought a race car when he was 16 years old," Cranston explained. "Like a hyped-up kind of race car. And I said, ‘Frankie, you gotta save your money now. Now's the time to save your --- and do this,’ and after, he waited patiently, ‘You gotta do this. This is how you work, you know, make sure that you can stay an actor, OK?’ And he goes, ‘I already sold it and made a $40,000 profit.’ I went, ‘Good, good."
WATCH ‘Malcolm in the Middle’ parents say Frankie Muniz had ‘great common sense’ from the time he was a teen
Kaczmarek added that she remembered sitting in makeup with him, and he told her he was thinking of buying some warehouses in Australia.
"And I said, ‘What?’" she laughed, explaining that he was getting into real estate as a teenage actor.
Cranston said it also "warms" his heart now to see him as a husband and a father and to his son.
"How patient, how loving he is to the boy," Cranston added, "and how kind he is to his wife and protective. And it's like, ‘Oh my God, he's there.’ He arrived, and he's intact, and he is safe, and he's smart and he is doing all the right things in the best way possible."
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Muniz married his wife, Paige Price, in 2019 and they share their 5-year-old son Muaz.
Ever the mother, Kaczmarek joked that she never wants Muniz to climb a ladder again because he fell trying to change a lightbulb and broke his wrist last year.
"I'm like, ‘Frankie, never, ever go on, don't ever put up Christmas tree lights. Don't ---' I mean, ladders are the, such a --- people die from falling off ladders," Kaczmarek said.
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Cranston joked: "So, he’s not doing all the right things."
Muniz told Fox News Digital last year that moving from Los Angeles to Arizona after the show ended was pivotal for him.
"I say moving to Arizona from Los Angeles saved my life in the sense that I just really started enjoying the little aspects of life," he explained. "I realized I left my house like just looking down all the time. And when I moved to Arizona, I started looking up."
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Muniz said the slower pace in Arizona helped him reconnect with everyday life in a way L.A. never allowed.
"I mean, going to the store, like just doing things, was a lot easier. Los Angeles was just very hectic and busy, and everyone's kind of in Hollywood trying to be seen or whatever it may be, and just really wasn't my cup of tea."
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Muniz said Arizona offered a sense of normalcy he couldn’t find in L.A., where the culture often kept him indoors and disconnected from everyday life.
He explained, "Moving to Arizona definitely allowed me to… it made me want to do more normal things, if that makes sense. I found myself in Los Angeles just staying at my house unless I had to go to work. I just didn’t really want to leave."
Muniz told Australia's PEDESTRIAN.TV in 2024 that he wouldn’t want his son to become a child actor.
"I would never let my kid go into the business," Muniz said before shooting the Australian version of the reality series "I’m a Celebrity … Get Me Out of Here," according to E! News. "And not that I had a negative experience, because to be honest, my experience was 100% positive. But I know so many people, friends that were close to me, that had such insanely negative experiences."
Muniz told Zach Sang on his podcast on Wednesday that he always felt like an outsider in show business, which he attributed partially to "imposter syndrome."
"Where like you go from just being a kid who kind of wanted to be an actor, but I did a bunch of things and then all of a sudden, like you're here, right? You're in Hollywood. You're going to all the things. You're nominated for awards, and I'm like I don't, how am I even invited, like how am I even here?"
He said he'd also always questioned himself as an actor and felt like he got "lucky."
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But, the actor has a "greater appreciation" now for everything he experienced.
"I had a great time but when you're in it you don't really notice the impact that it has, per se, you know what I mean? Like, you know, people are watching it but like having stepped away from it for such a long time and for 20 years, to be able to look back and go like, man, I am so lucky that I got to do that."
Muniz, who is now a professional racecar driver, said he was shocked after he left the entertainment industry to hear of people calling him a "failed" actor.
"And I remember thinking like, do people really think that? Like, you know, I don't know. I did 40 movies and had a TV show for seven years and not to talk about money-- made tens of millions of dollars. Like, I don't know if I failed, you know?"
"Malcolm in the Middle: Life's Still Unfair" premiered April 10 on Hulu and Hulu on Disney+.
Fox News Digital's Danielle Minnetian contributed to this report.