Frankie Muniz's mom was given tough ultimatum as childhood career took off
Topics: Celebrity, Film and TV
Amelia Jones
Featured Image Credit: Fox/KAC Productions
Topics: Celebrity, Film and TV
A video has resurfaced of Malcolm In The Middle actor Frankie Muniz's mom talking about the challenges she faced raising the childhood star.
Denise joined her son - who has recently traded Hollywood for a career in NASCAR - and host Katie Couric in 2013 as they talked about his road to stardom, including the difficult decision she had to make for her son.
See them chatting about it all here:
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Frankie began: "I started acting in North Carolina and had an agent there and, I don't want to say that I outgrew North Carolina, but she suggested that we come up to New York to continue acting."
His mom then clarified that they didn't go to NYC for the Malcolm in the Middle show originally, as that came a few years later.
The Fox sitcom debuted on 9 January 2000 before wrapping up in 2006 with Malcolm (Muniz) and Reese (Justin Berfield) graduating from high school.
Denise went on to explain that her son kept booking more projects, which left her with a tough decision.
"They said: 'You just can't leave' because he kept booking things. 'You can't leave. Can you homeschool him?'," she said. "This whole thing just wasn't planned what happened. His whole life and career."
She continued: "You were just coming here for the summer... he never returned."
Host Katie proceeded to ask, "So did you homeschool him?", to which Denise confirmed: "Yeah, I started to homeschool him."
The chat show host joked that homeschooling her daughter would be her biggest nightmare because she can't even help her daughter with fifth-grade math. Relatable.
"It was fifth grade and sixth grade so it was easier," admitted Denise, with Frankie explaining that he had a tutor while he was actually working.
Luckily, the whole thing paid off, with Frankie bagging his career-making role in Malcolm in the Middle.
When asked if she was excited when her son landed the lead role in the hit TV show, Denise confessed: "Yeah, definitely and that took us to California."
And it looks as though we could be seeing the show return to our screens once more after Bryan Cranston, who played Malcolm's dad, Hal, dropped a few hints about a possible Malcolm in the Middle reboot movie.
The actor told NME in February: “I can tell you that Linwood Boomer, the creator of Malcolm in the Middle, is interested in developing an idea for a rebooted series or a movie.
“He won’t do it unless there’s a really, really good idea though. He won’t just do it so that everyone makes a paycheck. And I’m not interested in that either.”
Here's hoping!