Former child star Frankie Muniz, 40, says walking away from Hollywood at the height of his fame was a decision that ultimately saved his life.
“Honestly, I did not like LA,” Muniz told Us Weekly. “So I moved to Arizona, and I love it. I feel like it saved my life in the sense that I started enjoying the little aspects of life more, like hiking [and] going to the grocery store. I didn’t have to fight to find a parking spot or pay for valet.”
Muniz rose to fame as the titular character in Malcolm in the Middle (2000–2006) before deciding to leave Tinseltown in 2008. At that point, he shifted his focus to race car driving, inspired by winning the 29th annual Toyota Pro/Celebrity Race.
“I was a huge racing fan, but never did it cross my mind that I’d be a race car driver,” he explained. “That feeling of crossing the finish line first was magical, and I knew in that moment, ‘I want to feel this more.’”
The Emmy-nominated actor, who also starred in box office hits Agent Cody Banks ($58.8M) and Big Fat Liar ($52.9M), said he wanted to commit fully to his new career. “You need to put your heart and soul into it. I was also at a point where I was just like, ‘I’m good. I made tons of money, and I could kind of step away if I wanted to.’”
Muniz admitted that from ages 8 to 21, he had only “maybe 60 days off” as he paid the “high price” of child stardom. “I remember at 13, 14 years old, when Malcolm was premiering, my mom would wake me up at 5 a.m. for radio interviews and fan mail signings before heading to set to work all day. You don’t take it in good or bad — you just have to do it.”
Still, the My Dog Skip star doesn’t believe he missed out on a normal childhood. “People used to ask me, ‘Aren’t you sad that you didn’t get to go to prom?’ Well, no, because I was hanging out at the Playboy Mansion and with Amanda Bynes and other celebrities. I got to do some pretty cool things!”
Muniz added that he was “thrilled” not to have grown up in the age of social media during his teenage years.
While his focus has been on racing, Muniz hasn’t entirely closed the door on acting. Over the past two decades, he has made guest appearances on television and confirmed he reprised his role as Malcolm in the upcoming four-episode Malcolm in the Middle reboot for Disney+, set for release in December.
The reboot will also see Bryan Cranston and Jane Kaczmarek return as Hal and Lois, alongside Christopher Masterson and Justin Berfield as Francis and Reese.
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