Frankie Muniz Would “Never” Support His Son Becoming A Child Actor

It’s difficult to think of Frankie Muniz outside the lens of his seminal role as Malcolm in the early ‘00s sitcom Malcolm In The Middle. Despite the fact that Muniz has gone on to act in many other roles and has even become a NASCAR driver, for many fans he will always be at least partially linked to that role. A role he took on as a child, and Muniz is making it clear that he will “never” want that for his own son.

Muniz sat down for an interview with Pedestrian.TV ahead of his participation in Australia’s I'm A Celebrity … Get Me Out Of Here reality show, where he will head into the African jungle to survive in a house along with other celebrities to compete for $100,000 to be donated to their charity of choice. Sort of like Survivor except they are all celebrities and live in a camp together. During his interview, Muniz was asked about his 3-year-old son Mauz, who he shares with wife Paige, and whether or not he would want to see his son become a child actor.

He was very clear on that matter: “I would never let my kid go into the business.”

Muniz, who continues to work steadily as a television actor and voice actor after his seven seasons on Malcolm In The Middle from 2000 to 2006, went on to emphasize that he had a “positive” experience as a child actor. “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’s experiences as a child actor were positive enough that he agreed to consider reprising his role as Malcolm when Bryan Cranston, who played his dad Hal, said he hoped to write a reunion for the cast in 2022 because he missed everyone “like crazy.” Still, he definitely doesn’t want his son to go into the business because, as he explained, “I just think it’s an ugly world in general. I never cared about rejection, but there’s a ton of rejection.”

The Agent Cody Banks star’s comments come as the world is looking closer at child stars from that same era because of the new Discovery documentary Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids’ TV, which levied allegations of abuse and mistreatment at adults working with child actors at the time.