Frankie Muniz says fatherhood pushed him to drop acting for racing

Frankie Muniz’s life changed in more ways than one when his son, Mauz Mosley, was born in 2021.

In an exclusive look at this week’s episode of the Drive podcast with Ford CEO Jim Farley, the Malcolm in the Middle star opens up about the realization that dawned on him in the hours after he welcomed Mauz into the world with his wife, Paige Price: “I literally was holding him, my son, in the hospital bed, and I remember thinking, ‘Who is he going to grow up thinking that I am?'”

Muniz continues, “Sure, I could say, ‘Here’s what Daddy used to do, Daddy used to be an actor, Daddy used to do that.’ But I wanted him to see me working really hard for something, striving for something, and all the ups and downs that come with it. And I really felt like I had unfinished business in the racing world.”

Born in New Jersey in 1985, Muniz made his acting debut at age 12, in the made-for-TV movie To Dance With Olivia. After several more small films and commercial gigs, Muniz landed his breakout role as the titular character in Linwood Boomer’s beloved dysfunctional-family sitcom Malcolm in the Middle.

The show skyrocketed Muniz to fame, earning him an Emmy nomination at 16 and allowing him to segue into multiple ventures outside acting. One such pursuit was racing cars, which had been a dream of his since childhood. Muniz participated in his first stunt car races in 2004 and steadily became more enmeshed in the sport, but he never fully stepped away from acting.

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As Muniz tells Farley, “When my son was born in 2021, it was the first time in my life that I wasn’t really doing anything.” Having been an actor, raced cars, joined a band that toured all over the world, and started an olive oil company, Muniz reflects that he was “always doing something that I could put effort into and passion into, and in 2021 I was kind of in this in-between state.”

Two years after the poignant moment with his newborn son, Muniz announced that he was “finally making my dream a reality” by becoming a full-time NASCAR racer. He said at the time that he would be “putting in a hundred percent because I don’t wanna look back at this opportunity and go, man, I wish I tried harder.”

Though he recently suffered a string of setbacks while racing in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, Muniz remains dedicated to excellence in a field where success is “not subjective, unlike being an actor,” he tells Farley.

That is, of course, until production on the Malcolm in the Middle reboot enters full swing on its way back to TV screens. Muniz recently shared a photo with his TV parents, Bryan Cranston and Jane Kaczmarek, offering a first glimpse of the actors together after the revival was announced by Disney+ in December.

Watch Muniz’s interview with Farley on the Drive podcast above.