Frankie Muniz cherishes his time as a child actor — but would “never” let his son be one.
The “Malcolm in the Middle” star was only 14 when the Fox sitcom premiered in 2000 and he became an Emmy-nominated celebrity. While he has no regrets, Muniz recently told Australian outlet Pedestrian.TV, “I would never let my kid go into the business.”
“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,” he said in a clip posted to Pedestrian.TV’s TikTok on Sunday.
“And I just think it’s an ugly world in general,” the 38-year-old added.
These remarks follow on the heels of major allegations by former child star Drake Bell, who claimed in “Quiet on Set,” a docuseries that explores the alleged abuse some child actors endured at Nickelodeon, that a dialogue coach sexually abused him when he was a teenager.
Muniz has never suggested that anything of the sort happened to him, however, and appeared most averse to his 3-year-old son, Mauz Mosley Muniz, becoming a child star because “there’s a ton of rejection” in Hollywood and that “becoming a successful actor is like winning the lottery.”
Muniz was just 12 years old when he made his debut with the 1997 TV movie “To Dance with Olivia.” He was nominated for a Primetime Emmy after the first season of “Malcolm in the Middle” and went on to star in movies like “Big Fat Liar” and “Agent Cody Banks.”
But Muniz admitted that getting there in the first place required colossal luck.
He told Pedestrian.TV that there are “a million people in Hollywood,” many of whom “could be the best actors on the planet,” but they don’t “get the opportunity” to shine, often falling by the wayside in such a precarious industry.
Muniz has since found fulfillment elsewhere. He switched lanes to pursue a racing career, sharing last year that he began to take it more seriously after his child was born in 2021.
“It hit me when I had my son,” Muniz told People in 2023. “I want him to grow up seeing me reach for my dreams and work hard for something that I’m passionate about, and the one world where I feel like I still have unfinished business was the racing world. So I’m going to go racing.”