Speaker 1: That's okay, becaus no one here is.
Speaker 2: Hello and welcome to teen Beat.
Speaker 3: I am your host, Danielle Fischel, a former child actor
Speaker 3: who spent her formative teenage years on a family sitcom where,
Speaker 3: for some unexplained reason, our middle school teacher followed us
Speaker 3: all the way to college. But is that important to
Speaker 3: unpack right now? Absolutely not, and that's because my current
Speaker 3: focus is talking to interesting people about their own upbringings
Speaker 3: and the universal understanding that being a teenager is both
Speaker 3: awkward and embarrassing no matter who you are.
Speaker 2: I gave you my.
Speaker 3: Child good, It's time we hear yours. But this week
Speaker 3: I am joined by a fellow forty something who traded
Speaker 3: in their traditional teenage years to punch a time card
Speaker 3: and mature in real time in front of millions of fans.
Speaker 2: But somehow, for.
Speaker 3: Him being the titular character on a hit TV show
Speaker 3: in his case, Malcolm in the Middle, is maybe the
Speaker 3: least interesting thing about him.
Speaker 2: Don't get me wrong.
Speaker 3: He was nominated for an Emmy and two Golden Globes
Speaker 3: for the role, and it led to movies like Big
Speaker 3: Fat Liar, Agent Cody Banks and Deuces Wild, leading CBS
Speaker 3: News to call him at the time one of Hollywood's
Speaker 3: most bankable teens, which I'm sure doesn't add any pressure
Speaker 3: to an already insane situation. But again, the guy is
Speaker 3: an onion when it comes to layers. In two thousand
Speaker 3: and eight, he put his acting career on hold to
Speaker 3: pursue a career in race car driving, you know as
Speaker 3: one does, focusing on open wheel racing, then stock cars,
Speaker 3: and now NASCAR trucks. Currently competing for Team Realm. He
Speaker 3: somehow turned what once looked like a vanity Weekend Warrior
Speaker 3: decision into a full on impressive career in sports. It's
Speaker 3: like if Keanu Reeves and Dogstar headlined Coachella. He also
Speaker 3: knew what to do with that Malcolm Money, becoming an
Speaker 3: entrepreneur and real estate investor, purchasing and selling parking garages,
Speaker 3: buying olive oil and vinegar specialty shops, and in turn
Speaker 3: avoiding the pitfalls that trapped so many of our peers.
Speaker 2: And now, like.
Speaker 3: Someone else I know, he has been brought back to
Speaker 3: star as an adult in a revival of the show
Speaker 3: that made him famous as a kid, Malcolm in the Middle,
Speaker 3: Life's Still Unfair, a four episode event, will premiere on
Speaker 3: Hulu on April tenth. But first, this uber famous kid
Speaker 3: star turned well adjusted parking garage connoisseur, olive oil expert,
Speaker 3: and race car driver will sit with me to find
Speaker 3: the not so smooth off screen parts of his childhood,
Speaker 3: because I'm sure they exist somehow. So welcome to teen
Speaker 3: Beat the iconic Frankie Munez.
Speaker 2: Hey, Hey, how are you good?
Speaker 4: Are you? Thanks for having me on?
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, thank you for being here.
Speaker 3: Are you maybe the most interesting man in the world.
Speaker 4: I don't. I don't feel like I am. I get
Speaker 4: when I hear like the intro and of all the
Speaker 4: things I do, and I'm reminded of all the things
Speaker 4: I do. I guess on paper it may seem that way,
Speaker 4: but like me, in my life and my head, like
Speaker 4: I feel like I still have so many things that
Speaker 4: I want to do right, So like just yeah, I've
Speaker 4: accomplished a lot, but I feel like I haven't nearly
Speaker 4: accomplished as much as I want to. So, uh, I
Speaker 4: don't know, I still feel like I got a lot
Speaker 4: of unfinished business to handle.
Speaker 2: So you're endlessly curious.
Speaker 3: You just there's like you have You're fascinated with lots
Speaker 3: of different things and you want to tackle them all.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and I don't. I don't necessarily make a plan, right,
Speaker 4: so like I'm not like, Okay, I really want to
Speaker 4: get into this. It's kind of like a lot of
Speaker 4: the things I've done have been spur the moment, this visions.
Speaker 4: But when I commit to something, I just dive in
Speaker 4: one hundred percent. Like I don't have hobbies, Like there's
Speaker 4: no such thing as a hobby for me, right, It's
Speaker 4: like no, no, I want to be the best, you know,
Speaker 4: Like like I can't go bowling because then I'm gonna
Speaker 4: want to be on the Professional Bowl or you know,
Speaker 4: league or whatever it is. Yeah, So it's just kind
Speaker 4: of my personality. Like I've always looked. I've always had
Speaker 4: this weird feeling. I remember literally being like eight nine
Speaker 4: years old and feeling like I was running out of time.
Speaker 4: I've always had this weird like I've got to try
Speaker 4: to wake up early and do as much as I
Speaker 4: can during the day because like there's so much I
Speaker 4: want to do and it's kind of stuck with me forever.
Speaker 4: So there's good and bad of that, right, Like I'm
Speaker 4: a little neurotic, but at the same time, like I've
Speaker 4: lived a full life, and but like I said, I
Speaker 4: still got a lot more I want to do.
Speaker 3: Wow, that's Have you ever thought about writing a memoir
Speaker 3: knowing that you feel like you have so much you
Speaker 3: want to do? You probably feel like you're way too
Speaker 3: young to write a memoir. But I feel like your memoir,
Speaker 3: if and when you choose to write it will be fascinating.
Speaker 4: I haven't actually thought about it. I don't think i'm
Speaker 4: a I'm not a good writer at least. Like my
Speaker 4: least favorite subject in school was English. Like I hated
Speaker 4: writing essays. I didn't like writing like I'm a math guy,
Speaker 4: you know what I mean. Yeah, although I hated math
Speaker 4: because they wanted me to show my work. I'm like,
Speaker 4: I just did in my head, Like I just know
Speaker 4: the answer. I don't know how I got it, but
Speaker 4: I know it.
Speaker 2: You know, and you're right and I was right, So
Speaker 2: like what does it matter? I know? That is such
Speaker 2: a frustrating feeling.
Speaker 3: I actually this is a really stupid story. But in
Speaker 3: college I got I got a B in a math class.
Speaker 3: And in college I was I was very tapanga. I
Speaker 3: got all a's and I got a B in a
Speaker 3: math class because on my final one of the ten
Speaker 3: point questions. Yeah, I got zero points for because I
Speaker 3: didn't show all my work even though I got the
Speaker 3: answer right.
Speaker 4: That is so frustrating.
Speaker 2: I was furious.
Speaker 4: I used to get mad because they're like, oh, you
Speaker 4: got to show your work. But it's like, well it
Speaker 4: takes half a page or it takes a whole page,
Speaker 4: Like I don't want to waste all that page. Like
Speaker 4: I know the answer just by looking at it, Like,
Speaker 4: why do I need you know what I mean, I'm
Speaker 4: trying to save the trees. What are you talking about exactly?
Speaker 2: You were doing a good thing.
Speaker 3: Yeah, well, we are a part of a small little
Speaker 3: sect of actors, a fraternity almost where even decades later,
Speaker 3: our character name is constantly yelled at us in airports.
Speaker 2: We have to stick together, you know.
Speaker 3: Yes, you were born in New Jersey and then you
Speaker 3: moved to North Carolina shortly thereafter. Neither of those are
Speaker 3: big Hollywood feeder towns. So are you always a little
Speaker 3: performer with big dreams?
Speaker 4: No? You know, I think back, and I never I
Speaker 4: never said I wanted to be an actor. It's one
Speaker 4: of the many things I did, and it just kind
Speaker 4: of took over my life right like. I. Yeah, I
Speaker 4: was from New Jersey. My dad worked for IBN. Transferred
Speaker 4: us down to North Carolina when I was like five
Speaker 4: or six, and I played every sport there was. I
Speaker 4: was a soccer player, football player, basketball, I did tap
Speaker 4: in jazz. I don't know why, but I did. I
Speaker 4: just did a little bit of everything. And it was
Speaker 4: my sister who actually she signed up for like a
Speaker 4: summer arts camp and they have a Raleigh Memorial Auditorium
Speaker 4: there and Raleigh. It's it's a big theater, like twenty
Speaker 4: five hundred three thousand theater and they put on shows
Speaker 4: at the end of the summer. And I thought it
Speaker 4: was really cool, but it wasn't something I was like,
Speaker 4: I have to do that. I was like, that seems cool.
Speaker 4: So she was going to continue down the path of
Speaker 4: trying to act or acting and doing theater and stuff.
Speaker 4: And we were jumping on the trampoline in our backyard
Speaker 4: and she was practicing the song that she was going
Speaker 4: to sing. It's like, you should audition, and I was
Speaker 4: like sure. So she picked Let's Go Fly Kite from
Speaker 4: Mary Poppins. I learned it, I went in and I
Speaker 4: sang it for it was for Christmas Carol, and I
Speaker 4: got the part of Tiny Tin, and like the second
Speaker 4: or third rehearsal, an agent went up to my mom
Speaker 4: was like, there's something out him, like I'd love to
Speaker 4: represent him. We didn't even know what it was, but
Speaker 4: we're like sure. So then started going on auditions and
Speaker 4: like from that moment until I kind of not stopped acting,
Speaker 4: but like took a break from acting, I never stopped acting,
Speaker 4: like you know, so it just kind of took over
Speaker 4: and just kind of happened, if that makes sense.
Speaker 3: Yes, wow, I did not realize that that's really that's
Speaker 3: really impressive. Very few people one have it happened that
Speaker 3: quickly for them, but two to never stop working that
Speaker 3: entire time until you made the choice.
Speaker 2: I'm going to put this on pause.
Speaker 4: For a moment. Yes, for sure, for sure, so you do.
Speaker 3: Eventually, then moved to Burbank, which is a city where
Speaker 3: many child actor dreams do come true.
Speaker 2: Do you remember.
Speaker 3: Those first few days in La? Was there like any
Speaker 3: culture shock for you?
Speaker 4: I remember, Actually I came out before I got Malcolm.
Speaker 4: My first time to LA, I was doing a screen
Speaker 4: test for my Dog's Skip Oh and I flew in
Speaker 4: and I didn't know it was the director, but he
Speaker 4: had picked me up at the airport and he was
Speaker 4: taking us around. I remember just being so wowed by La, right,
Speaker 4: like I've been in New York City, but like Ali
Speaker 4: just seemed just so different, and seeing the Hollywood Sign
Speaker 4: and he kind of took us through all like the
Speaker 4: little touristy things to kind of see it, and I
Speaker 4: don't know, I just remember being so afraid for my
Speaker 4: mom to get on the freeway because like maybe it
Speaker 4: was like in the movie Clueless, where like they get
Speaker 4: freaked out when they go on the freeway and like
Speaker 4: there's no I was like, you're not gonna to turn around,
Speaker 4: We're gonna get lost. You know. That was like my
Speaker 4: memory of like the first time I was in LA.
Speaker 4: But yeah, no, I definitely had culture shock. It's definitely
Speaker 4: a different world than than what I kind of knew
Speaker 4: from New York City, you know what I mean?
Speaker 2: But uh, for sure.
Speaker 3: But yeah, well you were twelve at the time, right
Speaker 3: when you first made your way out here, so that's
Speaker 3: obviously a very formative age. Was it hard to make
Speaker 3: friends and basically start a new life here?
Speaker 4: Yes? No, I mean I was. I was always the
Speaker 4: words not a loaner. I wasn't a loaner, but like
Speaker 4: I was always fine by myself made sense, you know
Speaker 4: what I mean, Like like like my sister, you know,
Speaker 4: if I could talk about her like she wasn't like
Speaker 4: she needed her friend group. She wanted her friend group.
Speaker 4: I was cool, Like if I if I had to
Speaker 4: go somewhere and leave and didn't see them, I would
Speaker 4: make friends or or not, even if I didn't, Like
Speaker 4: I didn't necessarily care. But I don't know if you remember,
Speaker 4: like the oak Wood Apartments, Oh of course course, right,
Speaker 4: So I think every person who comes out to LA
Speaker 4: probably stays at the Oakwood at some point, you know,
Speaker 4: like you know, especially child actors and stuff like that.
Speaker 4: So we didn't live there, but the kid who played
Speaker 4: Dewey Eric he lived there, so we'd go hang out
Speaker 4: with him, and I met a lot of kids that
Speaker 4: were there. Yeah, so my mom was I remember mom
Speaker 4: being so frustrated. She's like, wait, you didn't want to
Speaker 4: live at the oak Woods, but you're there every day
Speaker 4: hanging out with these kids.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 4: So I had like my little friend group and we
Speaker 4: would drive like rye little Razor scooters all around the
Speaker 4: Oakwood apartments and hang up. You know whatever. It was
Speaker 4: so I felt like I had my little gang, like
Speaker 4: I didn't, you know, I didn't feel like I was
Speaker 4: missing out on friends for sure.
Speaker 2: You know, good good.
Speaker 4: They were all for like a month or two trying
Speaker 4: to be an actor. Then they went back to Kansas or.
Speaker 3: Right, a rotating cast of friends exactly. Do you remember
Speaker 3: meeting other similar age kids at auditions? Some of my
Speaker 3: best friends still to this day I met at an audition.
Speaker 4: Yeah, no, I I you know, because I did most
Speaker 4: of my auditioning in New York, and I remember there
Speaker 4: was I never really became friends with them, I guess,
Speaker 4: but there was like a few boys that you'd see
Speaker 4: and we were like, oh, Michael's here.
Speaker 3: Great, he always books the roles I want. Do you
Speaker 3: remember for me to write your social Security number down?
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's true. Yeah, you write the name agents socially?
Speaker 2: Why why why do you need that for my audition?
Speaker 4: That's true. That is a weird thing. I never thought
Speaker 4: about that. That is so weird.
Speaker 2: I've looked back at that and I'm like, why.
Speaker 4: Were we just like, yeah, sure, are you in the union,
Speaker 4: I'm eligible, okay.
Speaker 2: And I'm this agency. It's so funny.
Speaker 3: Okay, so you book some commercials, you do a movie,
Speaker 3: but then comes the big break.
Speaker 2: What was the Malcolm in the Middle audition?
Speaker 4: Like all right, so it's a pretty It's actually a
Speaker 4: pretty fun story because when I was in New York,
Speaker 4: we were going on I don't know, four six auditions
Speaker 4: a day, right, because I was doing everything from commercials, theater, print, movie,
Speaker 4: whatever it was. Right, So we we'd have our whole
Speaker 4: day booked out. And the day I was supposed to
Speaker 4: go on the Malcolm premiere, I had booked a Pizza
Speaker 4: Hut commercial. Oh, and like it was filming in Brooklyn,
Speaker 4: and I was like, so, Mom, we have to be
Speaker 4: at the you know. I was kind of the I
Speaker 4: don't want to say the responsible one, but.
Speaker 2: I was scheduler.
Speaker 4: I was I like, I knew what time we had
Speaker 4: to leave, Like, I'm the one who knew what time
Speaker 4: the bus came for the New Jersey Transit to get
Speaker 4: us to the Port Authority. I knew all the subway maps,
Speaker 4: how to get everywhere. And I was like, Mom, there's
Speaker 4: no way that we can make it for the ten
Speaker 4: o'clock Pizza Huck commercial if we go to this audition
Speaker 4: at nine it was at like fifteen to fifteen Broadway.
Speaker 4: I was like, there's no way, Like, we're not going.
Speaker 4: I think you should just go. Maybe we'll go early.
Speaker 4: We'll see if they can they can they can squeeze
Speaker 4: you in early, and if not, we'll leave. So I
Speaker 4: remember being really really frustrated because I was like, you know,
Speaker 4: you're gonna ruin my big pizza hut, my big break. Okay,
Speaker 4: you know what I mean. I was one of nineteen
Speaker 4: kids that was gonna be in this commercial.
Speaker 2: Okay, this was said, Pizza Hut is life.
Speaker 4: Yeah. So we go in early and the cast director
Speaker 4: wasn't even there yet, and I was like, mom, let's
Speaker 4: just go, please, let's go. And right when we went
Speaker 4: to leave, the cast director came and she's like, oh,
Speaker 4: you're early. I was like, I have to do this commercial.
Speaker 4: She was coming really quick. I'll put you on tape
Speaker 4: super quick. So I go to the audition and I
Speaker 4: was just angry, like I was. I was just frustrated
Speaker 4: and angry. I read it as nonchalant quick as I could,
Speaker 4: just to get through it, just to say I did
Speaker 4: it so we can get to my audition. So it
Speaker 4: was like two days later we get a call and
Speaker 4: they're like, hey, they really liked your tape and they
Speaker 4: want you to come in and do more scenes. I
Speaker 4: was like, what, Like I sucked.
Speaker 2: I was terrible at that one. I didn't even try.
Speaker 4: I really didn't try. But we hadn't even read the
Speaker 4: script because like back then, like you very rarely got
Speaker 4: the scripts. You just got like whatever the sides were.
Speaker 4: He didn't really know. You get the breakdown and you're like,
Speaker 4: I guess this is how you'd act. I don't know,
Speaker 4: you know what I mean. So we were sitting in
Speaker 4: the in the waiting room about to go do the
Speaker 4: more scenes, and they gave us the script and my
Speaker 4: mom and I were reading it and we were just
Speaker 4: cracking up, like we loved it. But I realized how
Speaker 4: I did the audition the initial that was Malcolm. He
Speaker 4: was frustrated, he was angry, he thought the world was
Speaker 4: out to get him, you know what I mean, and
Speaker 4: you know, just wanted to like move on right. So
Speaker 4: it it worked out pretty good. And you know, here
Speaker 4: I am.
Speaker 3: Thank god that your mom didn't care as much about
Speaker 3: the subway schedule as you did, because without that would
Speaker 3: you have even had that angst and anger exactly. The
Speaker 3: pilot episode of Malcolm in the Middle had twenty three
Speaker 3: million viewers, The second episode somehow best did that with
Speaker 3: twenty six million, and then My Dog Skip comes out
Speaker 3: at basically the same time. How long did it take
Speaker 3: for things to drastically change in your life?
Speaker 4: I have two stories there. One before the show even
Speaker 4: started airing, there was billboards everywhere, like they had bill
Speaker 4: Malcolm Middle billboards all over the place, and I remember
Speaker 4: being so excited. There was one at the mall like
Speaker 4: that I by the house I lived in New Jersey,
Speaker 4: and like I stood next to it, like and with
Speaker 4: like see if people would notice that it was me,
Speaker 4: you know what I mean, Like right before the show
Speaker 4: came on. And but I remember riding in the subway
Speaker 4: one day and people were staring at me. The show
Speaker 4: hadn't aired yet, you know what I mean. And I
Speaker 4: remember going to my mom. I go, Mom, like, why
Speaker 4: is your own seria? Like do I have something on
Speaker 4: my face? And finally someone walked up to me and
Speaker 4: they were like, you're going to be on that show.
Speaker 4: I saw you're the kid It's gonna be on that show,
Speaker 4: And I was like, whoa. The show hasn't even come
Speaker 4: out yet but people already, which was kind of like
Speaker 4: a crazy feeling, right going from zero. And to add
Speaker 4: to that story, you know, we were in New York
Speaker 4: City every day and my mom and I we would
Speaker 4: always take the bus to the Poort Authority and so
Speaker 4: we'd walk through Times Square and we'd always be there
Speaker 4: around the time when TRL was being filmed, right, And
Speaker 4: so we would we would be down in the crowd
Speaker 4: and we'd wait to see what celebrity was going to
Speaker 4: come to the glass and wave down and think we'd
Speaker 4: get pictures. Or I'd also go if we were up
Speaker 4: by where David Letterman filmed, we'd go there and like
Speaker 4: I got a picture with Sydney Crawford, you know, like
Speaker 4: I was trying to get like to see the celebrities.
Speaker 4: And it was like I think two or three months later,
Speaker 4: I was waving down to the crowd. And that was
Speaker 4: a weird thing, right, because like it just it does.
Speaker 2: It happens quick, right, It.
Speaker 4: Just being a kid trying to be an actor to
Speaker 4: all of a sudden, like everyone knows who you are,
Speaker 4: and you know, it's it's it's really hard to explain.
Speaker 2: For sure.
Speaker 3: I bet somewhere there is a photo of you in
Speaker 3: the crowd down below TRL.
Speaker 2: You know what I mean.
Speaker 4: Like, I was at my mom's house recently and she
Speaker 4: pulled out a photo album and we went we stood
Speaker 4: outside of the Grammys one year, I think it was
Speaker 4: nineteen ninety seven or nineteen ninety eight, and we were
Speaker 4: out there for fifteen hours waiting for like the celebrity.
Speaker 4: Like we had a really good spot, like waiting for
Speaker 4: everyone to come out of the cars. And I was
Speaker 4: a really big Hanson fan. Yeah, same every time, and
Speaker 4: like they came out of their van and I have, like,
Speaker 4: you know, I had like a one to ten you know,
Speaker 4: film camera, and all those photos were there. And it's
Speaker 4: weird because like I ended up becoming like best friends
Speaker 4: with Zach Hanson. I'm like, how weird is like you know,
Speaker 4: when you think about it, you know of where you
Speaker 4: are and where your life takes you.
Speaker 2: But uh, wow, that's really cool.
Speaker 4: I'm sure there are or you can watch all episodes
Speaker 4: of TRL. You'll see me my mom down in the crowd.
Speaker 2: Waven No No, I love that. I think that's great.
Speaker 2: I know you.
Speaker 3: Mentioned you don't really have hobbies, you really throw yourself
Speaker 3: into them, But as a teenager or as a kid.
Speaker 2: Did you have hobbies?
Speaker 3: Were you able to throw yourself into things while you
Speaker 3: were also still working full time? I mean, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 3: you've probably not had many days off.
Speaker 4: Yeah. I didn't have many days off. But I loved basketball.
Speaker 4: I played in the NBA Entertainment League. That was like
Speaker 4: life to me. You know. I thought I had a
Speaker 4: shot to make it in the NBA. You know, five four,
Speaker 4: you know, Frankie Munits. But I was actually pretty good
Speaker 4: at basketball, but that was like my my thing. And
Speaker 4: then I loved golf. I played golf all the time.
Speaker 4: And so those are those were my two. Like if
Speaker 4: I had time, that's what I was I was probably doing.
Speaker 4: I was always into cars, like not as a driver yet,
Speaker 4: but like just loved the idea of having cars and
Speaker 4: going to car shows and stuff like that. So I
Speaker 4: do that a little bit in LA. But but no,
Speaker 4: I mean I think if I added up all the
Speaker 4: days off I had from eight years old to twenty
Speaker 4: when the show ended, like maybe I get forty days
Speaker 4: off in that in that span, you know what I mean,
Speaker 4: there wasn't a lot of time to you know, because
Speaker 4: even on like the days where I didn't have anything.
Speaker 4: You would have tons of press, right My mom would
Speaker 4: wake me up and be like, oh, you got you know,
Speaker 4: five radio interviews they schedule that you have to do,
Speaker 4: and then you have this, and then you have to
Speaker 4: go here, and then we're flying here. So you're always
Speaker 4: doing something, you know what I mean back then, and
Speaker 4: so it's hard to really dive into anything else, you
Speaker 4: know what I mean.
Speaker 3: At that time, a lot of us kid actors or
Speaker 3: former kid actors talk about how we avoided burnout or
Speaker 3: whether or not we did experience burnout. Yeah, did you
Speaker 3: ever feel like you experienced being really burnt out with
Speaker 3: the industry?
Speaker 4: I think I did. I mean I've never I've never
Speaker 4: really talked about it. I just remember just being just
Speaker 4: tired in general. You know. I started saying no, which
Speaker 4: like I'm not a no person, right, like meaning like
Speaker 4: you know, I'd be like, I really, I just don't
Speaker 4: want to, like I don't want to do that anymore.
Speaker 4: And but then I also knew like the how great
Speaker 4: of an opportunity I had, right, So like there was
Speaker 4: a there was a mix of like, yeah, you're tired,
Speaker 4: but you got to fight through because like you don't
Speaker 4: know when it's gonna end. But also when you're in it,
Speaker 4: you don't think it's gonna end, if that makes sense, right,
Speaker 4: Like you think that like it's gonna be forever like that,
Speaker 4: where now I can look back at it and go, okay,
Speaker 4: I could see where I was getting pretty burned out
Speaker 4: at that point, you know what I mean, you know,
Speaker 4: but I have a greater appreciation for opportunity now because
Speaker 4: you know, like once you you've had it, you step
Speaker 4: away from it for a little bit, and then when
Speaker 4: you get the opportunity again, like you know, I'm diving
Speaker 4: in one hundred percent, you know what I mean, because
Speaker 4: I know how lucky I am, and I know it
Speaker 4: doesn't last forever, right exactly, you know, take it while
Speaker 4: you have it, you know, like and get to experience it.
Speaker 4: And I just have a different mindset in general for everything,
Speaker 4: like for life in general. So you know, having stepped
Speaker 4: away I think was a positive for me in the
Speaker 4: sense that I've kind of said it saved my life
Speaker 4: because it just made me have a greater appreciation for
Speaker 4: the small things, If that makes sense. I don't know.
Speaker 2: Totally understand, couldn't relate more.
Speaker 3: I am exactly the same way I think I definitely
Speaker 3: experienced burnout. I definitely took myself out of the industry
Speaker 3: focused on something else, something else that I loved that
Speaker 3: was really good for me. And then now being back
Speaker 3: in it the way I am, I have a just
Speaker 3: a totally different perspective on it all.
Speaker 4: Now.
Speaker 3: There's something about age also that just, you know, makes
Speaker 3: you appreciate things differently than you do when when you're young,
Speaker 3: and there's so much to think about when you're a kid,
Speaker 3: you know, and you've got a full time job, and
Speaker 3: it's a It's not that being an adult is really
Speaker 3: any easier, but it's just different for sure. For sure,
Speaker 3: a lot of child stars from your class haven't been
Speaker 3: as lucky as you or I and weren't able to
Speaker 3: find balance in maybe when the jobs stop rolling in
Speaker 3: or when we start saying no to jobs finding other things.
Speaker 2: That we love. What do you think helped you survive?
Speaker 3: Is it that that desire to just throw yourself into
Speaker 3: everything one hundred percent?
Speaker 4: I think so, you know. I Oddly I never fully
Speaker 4: felt like I belonged in Hollywood, Like even when I
Speaker 4: was on the show right and I had people coming
Speaker 4: up to me, or I was nominated for awards, and
Speaker 4: I'd be at these award shows and I was like,
Speaker 4: how am I even invited here? You know, never mind
Speaker 4: like associated with these people, Like I felt like an outsider.
Speaker 4: I have this weird thing where I grew up, and
Speaker 4: it's funny now because like I've talked to my parents
Speaker 4: about it. Like I grew up thinking the only people
Speaker 4: who like did drugs were criminals, you know what I mean? Yep,
Speaker 4: like literally like like only bad guys somehow, and then
Speaker 4: like you know, and I talked to my dad, and
Speaker 4: my Dad's like I smoked pot every single day that
Speaker 4: you were alive, you know what I mean, Like I
Speaker 4: had no idea. You know, you're like your mom was
Speaker 4: smoked cnagrettes. I was like why, Like no way, you know,
Speaker 4: not mom, you know exactly. So like being in the
Speaker 4: Hollywood world, right, you are surrounded by it, but somehow
Speaker 4: I wasn't, Like somehow I knew it was there, but
Speaker 4: like I no one pushed anything on me, No one.
Speaker 4: I never experienced that. So I remember being like eighteen
Speaker 4: or nineteen, you know, I'd been on Malcolm for a
Speaker 4: bunch of years. I was going to all the things,
Speaker 4: all the parties, blah, blah blah, and I finally really
Speaker 4: started to see it, like to see kind of that.
Speaker 4: I was like, oh, I'm the odd one.
Speaker 2: You know what I mean, dabbling.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I'm the one who's not doing And but going
Speaker 4: back to like I said when I was eight, where
Speaker 4: I always felt like I was running out of time.
Speaker 4: I felt like at eighteen that I was sixty and
Speaker 4: I lived so many years that I was like, oh,
Speaker 4: if I haven't done it now, there's no reason for
Speaker 4: me to start right exactly. Just so it was like,
Speaker 4: I know that's necessarily with the question was, but I
Speaker 4: feel like a lot of people kind of get sucked
Speaker 4: into that part of the world. But even then, when
Speaker 4: the show ended and I had the opportunity to go racing,
Speaker 4: like I wanted to commit to that. I wanted to
Speaker 4: do that. So I've always gone from like I've never
Speaker 4: not been busy, right right, I never really went through
Speaker 4: like a lull if that makes sense, to where I
Speaker 4: was like, oh wait, oh man, where I think a
Speaker 4: lot of child actors, especially where like you grow up
Speaker 4: in it and once you have some success, you have
Speaker 4: so many people coming up to you all the time
Speaker 4: telling you how much they love your stuff. For you
Speaker 4: or you know, and you're getting all these things and
Speaker 4: you know, thrown at you and you're traveling all around
Speaker 4: the world and then it stops. Yeah, that probably is hard, right,
Speaker 4: like to feel like you're here and then realize that
Speaker 4: like nobody cares, nobody really cares in the end. Yes,
Speaker 4: So I feel like a lot of people go down
Speaker 4: a path of like looking for something to fill that void,
Speaker 4: you know what I mean, or.
Speaker 3: You know, and going from being extremely busy to having
Speaker 3: a lot of time on your hands. Yeah, and if
Speaker 3: you have too much time on your hands and you
Speaker 3: allow access to the wrong people, there will be people
Speaker 3: who will come and tell you what you should fill
Speaker 3: your time with exactly.
Speaker 4: Yeah. So I just never I never really necessarily went
Speaker 4: through that, I guess. I don't know. I don't know
Speaker 4: if I answered your question there, but yeah.
Speaker 2: He did.
Speaker 3: Roundabout way, Where does Brian Cranston fall into this equation?
Speaker 3: What was he like as a TV dad and possibly
Speaker 3: mentor over the years?
Speaker 4: I mean, Brian, I've always said, like, when people ask
Speaker 4: me who my favorite actor I work with is, I
Speaker 4: always say Brian. For a number of reasons. A. I've
Speaker 4: never seen someone commit one hundred percent to every single
Speaker 4: moment that they're on set, right, So, like I always
Speaker 4: admired that because you know, like when you're doing a
Speaker 4: show for a long time, like eventually I'm kind of tired,
Speaker 4: you know.
Speaker 2: Like I'm phoning it in.
Speaker 4: You sure we're not done? We got it, you know
Speaker 4: what I mean? Like Ryan never said that, right, he
Speaker 4: was always like, gave it if he was off camera,
Speaker 4: you know what I mean, gave the same performance as
Speaker 4: he did if it was his close up, Like, gave
Speaker 4: it as all to every single person on set. He
Speaker 4: was always just so nice and genuine and cared. And
Speaker 4: that's something that's even like followed over the last twenty years. Like,
Speaker 4: no matter what it is I've been doing, he's always
Speaker 4: reached out. He's always supported it. Right when I owned
Speaker 4: an olive oil company, he bought the olive oil. If
Speaker 4: I was in a band, he came to the show
Speaker 4: right like you know what I mean, Like he's always
Speaker 4: kind of been like that, and I've always admired him
Speaker 4: a for that, but also just his work ethic. You know,
Speaker 4: I want the way I look at him, like as
Speaker 4: an actor or as a professional or whatever it is,
Speaker 4: as a person, I feel like everyone who works with
Speaker 4: him has the same thing to say about him, And
Speaker 4: I want that for me, right, I want people to
Speaker 4: think that way, Like I want to have that kind
Speaker 4: of impression on people. So like in the New Malcolm episodes,
Speaker 4: Malcolm has a daughter, right, So like I wanted to
Speaker 4: be that influence to her, the actress, you know what
Speaker 4: I mean, to where maybe she says the same thing
Speaker 4: about me in twenty years, I don't.
Speaker 3: Know, absolutely, I'll probably still be doing this podcast and
Speaker 3: I'll interview her and I'll let you know. I'll report
Speaker 3: back where she says you no longer live in La, right, No, yeah.
Speaker 4: I live in Scottsdale, Arizona.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 3: Was there a specific instance or a final straw that
Speaker 3: helped you realize that moving.
Speaker 2: Out of LA was vital for you?
Speaker 4: I was never an LA fan. Yeah, I don't know,
Speaker 4: maybe being that I was more like a New York guy,
Speaker 4: you know, like you know, just like opposite code, like
Speaker 4: just different. It's a different world. The traffic. I always
Speaker 4: felt like it was difficult to live, if that makes sense,
Speaker 4: Like to go to the store is hard. I packed,
Speaker 4: and you probably had the vala and you know, you
Speaker 4: know what I mean, Like I just I don't know
Speaker 4: and when. So when the show ended and I started racing,
Speaker 4: I finally realized that I'm on the road every week anyway,
Speaker 4: going to different racetracks around the country. Like I could
Speaker 4: be based anywhere.
Speaker 2: Right home base be anywhere, and there.
Speaker 4: Was not necessarily a reason for me to stay in La.
Speaker 4: So I actually remember I was with my ex girlfriend
Speaker 4: and we were at a store about to buy a
Speaker 4: barbecue from a house in LA and I was like,
Speaker 4: before I buy this barbecue, would you ever want to
Speaker 4: move to Scottsdale, And She's like, yeah. We left the line,
Speaker 4: got in our car, drove to Scottsdale, went into an
Speaker 4: open house that afternoon, bought it, and closed nine days later.
Speaker 4: And I've been there for eighteen years.
Speaker 3: By gosh, you literally said it that day and then
Speaker 3: went and just a place that you saw.
Speaker 4: Yeah. So but I, you know, I say, leaving La same,
Speaker 4: you know, thing like it made me just I started
Speaker 4: looking up, Like I started enjoying the small things of life,
Speaker 4: you know, like I go hiking, I ride mountain bikes,
Speaker 4: I I do things that I just I'm sure is
Speaker 4: here they haven't here. But like I just didn't want
Speaker 4: to leave my house, like I didn't want to do it.
Speaker 4: I know people love LA and yeah, nothing against you know,
Speaker 4: I'm sure it's a great place. It just wasn't for me, right,
Speaker 4: And when I'm home, like when I'm in Scotstille, which
Speaker 4: is rare these days because I'm on the road three
Speaker 4: hundred plus days a year with the racing, but I
Speaker 4: truly feel like that's where I'm supposed to be. And
Speaker 4: it feels good to feel like you're where you're supposed
Speaker 4: to be, if that makes sense.
Speaker 3: Totally Okay, very serious question here. What type of person
Speaker 3: do you think you would have been had you gone
Speaker 3: by Frank Munez oh go instead of Frankie.
Speaker 2: Who's frank? Who do you think Frank is?
Speaker 4: Oh? Man, that's a funny one because you know, I
Speaker 4: just turned forty, right, and I'm still Frankie Munich like
Speaker 4: I was. Like, you know, people I sometimes get a
Speaker 4: little like crap for it. They're like, are you still Frankie?
Speaker 4: But my dad, I'm the fourth I'm Francisco mune Is
Speaker 4: the fourth, right, Okay, so my dad has always been
Speaker 4: frank to me.
Speaker 2: Okay, but Frank just seems so old and like born.
Speaker 2: You know what I mean, you don't want to be Frank.
Speaker 4: Yeah, So I don't know. I've just I've never really
Speaker 4: I've never fully thought about being Frank. Who would Frank
Speaker 4: Muni as be uh well, you know, I know, like
Speaker 4: Rick Ricky Schroeder became Rick Schroeder. You know, didn't really
Speaker 4: do much for it.
Speaker 3: It didn't change much. Oh yeah, no, not career wise.
Speaker 3: I don't even mean career. I just mean, would you
Speaker 3: be a totally different person had you been Frank?
Speaker 4: Oh? Man, I don't. I don't know. You know, my
Speaker 4: real name is Francisco.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 4: And I was joking with my wife, you know, She's like,
Speaker 4: you know what someone that someone literally said like why
Speaker 4: are you still Franky? And I was like, is it
Speaker 4: weird that, like like I'm forty and I'm Frankie. I
Speaker 4: don't know, it's just my name. I don't know, I think.
Speaker 4: And she's like, maybe you should go by Francisco. And
Speaker 4: I was like, oh, hell no, like you know that
Speaker 4: that's my name, but like it's so not my name, right,
Speaker 4: And I was like, what about what if I just
Speaker 4: came out as like Cisco Munits and just Cisco From
Speaker 4: how long?
Speaker 2: I now go by Cisco that's it.
Speaker 4: You only call me Cisco be.
Speaker 3: The only person to move to Scottsdale and then become
Speaker 3: more Hollywood.
Speaker 4: I don't know. I like not. I don't want to
Speaker 4: say I like boring jobs because don't get me wrong,
Speaker 4: but like I love like bookkeeping and accounting. So I
Speaker 4: think Frank Munis would be like, would work at H
Speaker 4: and R Block and he would do your taxes really
Speaker 4: quick and get you that you know, two dollars refund
Speaker 4: and you'd be thrilled.
Speaker 3: And you'd also get to put all those skills of
Speaker 3: like of organization and and you know, planning, you get
Speaker 3: to put all that to I think this is just
Speaker 3: a great thing for you to know that the.
Speaker 4: Future has in store for me. Like when I'm done racing,
Speaker 4: it's like, yeah, I'm probably just going to open an
Speaker 4: accounting for.
Speaker 3: You're still too young and athletic to be Frank. Frankie
Speaker 3: is young and athletic and like super busy. Yeah, And
Speaker 3: I think Frank is eventually when you need to settle down,
Speaker 3: when your knees hurt or something and you need to go, I'm.
Speaker 4: Close because my knees are aching. That's for sure.
Speaker 2: What age did racing become an interest for you.
Speaker 3: You said you were always interested in cars, but when
Speaker 3: did the idea of racing them?
Speaker 4: Same thing. I remember being a kid. My family did
Speaker 4: not like racing. So that's not like I went to
Speaker 4: races with my dad or they didn't watch it on TV.
Speaker 4: But I always woke up at like four or five
Speaker 4: in the morning, even when I was five six years old. Yeah,
Speaker 4: you know, I'd go in the living room and I
Speaker 4: put on the TV. And on the weekends, the Formula
Speaker 4: One races would be on at like five am because
Speaker 4: it's you know, they're in Europe or whatever. I remember
Speaker 4: watching those, and I watched the Indie car and I
Speaker 4: watched NASCAR races and I remember loving it. But like
Speaker 4: it never crossed my mind that ever would be a
Speaker 4: race car driver, because like it's like saying you want
Speaker 4: to be an astronaut, Like yeah, it's a dream, but like,
Speaker 4: how do how do you do that? Like right, you know,
Speaker 4: no one really does that, you know what I mean?
Speaker 4: So I actually I thought about this the other day
Speaker 4: and I and it was the first time I thought
Speaker 4: about it. The reason why I'm a race car driver
Speaker 4: is actually because of Brian Kranston, and I don't think
Speaker 4: I've ever said this out loud to like on an interview.
Speaker 4: So he did. He and Chris Masterson, who played Francis
Speaker 4: on Malcolm, they got invited to do the Toyota Grand
Speaker 4: Prix of Long Beach Pro Celebrity Race. And this was
Speaker 4: like two thousand and two or two thousand and three,
Speaker 4: and Brian came back from that and he goes, it
Speaker 4: was the most incredible thing I've ever done in my life.
Speaker 4: And if you because you knew I loved cars, it's like,
Speaker 4: if they ever ask you, you have to say yes,
Speaker 4: but you have to be eighteen. I think I was
Speaker 4: seventeen at the time. So the following year they asked me, yeah,
Speaker 4: I need you do it, and they send you out
Speaker 4: to like Palmdale, and you like train at Willow Springs
Speaker 4: Raceway for a few weeks and it's a very serious's
Speaker 4: a pro cleven race, but like it's very serious.
Speaker 2: There's still a risk of death.
Speaker 4: Yes, yeah, And I just remember loving it, but I
Speaker 4: didn't think I'd be good at it, but I ended
Speaker 4: up winning the race.
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh.
Speaker 4: But that feeling, I mean, I've experienced a lot of
Speaker 4: cool things in my life that feeling of crossing the
Speaker 4: finish line first is unlike anything I've ever experienced, because
Speaker 4: like as an actor, I could dedicate my life to
Speaker 4: a role or to a job and put in what
Speaker 4: I think is the best performance I've ever done in
Speaker 4: my life and people see it and they're like, Eh,
Speaker 4: there's okay. You're subjective, right, Some people love it, some
Speaker 4: people hate it. You know, where in racing, if you're
Speaker 4: the best, you win, and if you're not, you don't.
Speaker 4: You know, it's right there, you know, And I've never
Speaker 4: had something that been a part of that. That's the case.
Speaker 4: So winning that was amazing. A pro team approached me
Speaker 4: after that race. I was like, Hey, we we'd love
Speaker 4: to just put you in the car just for fun,
Speaker 4: like just for a test. Just come down, fly to Houston.
Speaker 4: We'll put in the race car. You can have two
Speaker 4: fun days and that'll be it. I was like, okay.
Speaker 4: And I remember sitting in the race car. They were
Speaker 4: molding my seat because like they molded the seat to
Speaker 4: your body, and I was trembling. I was so scared
Speaker 4: because I was like, I don't know what I'm doing.
Speaker 4: I have no idea what I'm doing. And cut to
Speaker 4: the end of the two days, I was faster than
Speaker 4: their like professional driver, and they were like, we didn't
Speaker 4: really think anything of this, but like you you should
Speaker 4: do this, Like what's your experience. I go the pro
Speaker 4: celebrity race and Long Beach, you know, And so they
Speaker 4: signed me to a two year development deal. And the
Speaker 4: next thing I knew, like a month later, not knowing
Speaker 4: the rules of what the race, of the racing or
Speaker 4: what I was doing, I was racing against some of
Speaker 4: the top drivers in the world and it was a
Speaker 4: professional driver. So like it just kind of happened. Yes,
Speaker 4: But that was the same year. That was two thousand
Speaker 4: and six, and that was the year that malcommanded. So
Speaker 4: I had made the conscious decision when the show ended
Speaker 4: to say hey to my agency manager, I was like,
Speaker 4: I don't care what comes in, Like I'm going to focus.
Speaker 4: I'm going to try to focus on this. You know,
Speaker 4: I really want to try to be a race car driver,
Speaker 4: because if you're competing against guys that that's their lives, right,
Speaker 4: that's all they do, that's all they think about. They're
Speaker 4: in the shop, they're in the simulator, they're working at.
Speaker 4: You can't just show up and kind of do it.
Speaker 2: You know what exactly.
Speaker 4: So I wanted to do that, and that's what I did.
Speaker 4: And here I am now, you know, twenty twenty two
Speaker 4: years later racing NASCAR and I love it. Wow.
Speaker 3: I mean, while researching you, I was amazed to see
Speaker 3: that when I googled Frankie Munez, your racing information comes
Speaker 3: up first.
Speaker 4: Nice.
Speaker 2: Did you did you ever think that could actually happen?
Speaker 4: No? You know, look, I've been a cool thing. Like
Speaker 4: I've been recognized since I was twelve years old, right,
Speaker 4: so for the past thirty years, right.
Speaker 1: And.
Speaker 4: The coolest thing I've ever experienced is when people started
Speaker 4: coming up to me as fans of the racing. I
Speaker 4: don't know why, Like, I don't know why it meant
Speaker 4: so much to me, you know, because you know, I'm
Speaker 4: doing something that is different, that is unexpected. But like
Speaker 4: the fact that people do like it and appreciate it,
Speaker 4: or the rooting for me, Like I love that when
Speaker 4: I'm at the races and people come up to me
Speaker 4: with Frankie Munez like number thirty three shirts on, Like,
Speaker 4: I don't know why it's so cool to me because
Speaker 4: I don't know, I really.
Speaker 2: Really probably I can relate to it.
Speaker 3: In the sense that when people all you know again,
Speaker 3: since I was twelve as well Boy Meets World, I
Speaker 3: was twelve, twelve to nineteen when people would come up
Speaker 3: to me and they recognize me Astupanga, I love it.
Speaker 3: It means a great deal to me. But now that
Speaker 3: we have Pod meets World and people come up to
Speaker 3: me and recognize me for the pod and they know me,
Speaker 3: it feels it's totally different. Yes, to be appreciated for
Speaker 3: something that's you being you, you showing you know you.
Speaker 3: You the race car driver is not playing a characters.
Speaker 3: It's an accomplishment that you really own. And I don't
Speaker 3: know why we don't recognize that we also own the
Speaker 3: acting side too. It just feels like more of different. Yeah,
Speaker 3: it's just different. So I totally understand. Well, now in
Speaker 3: twenty twenty six you have said yes, much like I
Speaker 3: did for Girl Meets World back in twenty fourteen, you
Speaker 3: have decided to return to the character that will be
Speaker 3: named first in our obituaries. Malcolm in the Middle is
Speaker 3: back for a four episode special event. Take me through
Speaker 3: your thought process when you first got the call.
Speaker 4: I mean, obviously I was thrilled. This was a long
Speaker 4: time coming, right. I think I'd watched all the episodes
Speaker 4: for the first time in maybe twenty fourteen or twenty fifteen.
Speaker 4: I've never seen them, yep. And at the very end
Speaker 4: of it, I ended up tweeting, like, man, I just
Speaker 4: finished watching the show, Like I have so many thoughts.
Speaker 4: It's it was such a different show than I even
Speaker 4: thought we were making, like the comedy everything about it had.
Speaker 4: I enjoyed it as a fan, but I said something like, man,
Speaker 4: I would love to know what Malcolm and his family
Speaker 4: are up to now, because like the last episode is
Speaker 4: left so not vague, but like they expect Malcolm to
Speaker 4: become president of the United States, and yeah, like where
Speaker 4: where is he? And I tweeted it and that went
Speaker 4: like everywhere, like everyone picked it up and it kind
Speaker 4: of went viral, and I couldn't believe the like the
Speaker 4: fan reaction of the excitement of the potential of seeing
Speaker 4: more episodes. So I think that day I had or
Speaker 4: later that week, I called the creator, Lynwood Boomer and
Speaker 4: I didn't talk to him since the last episode of filming,
Speaker 4: and the first thing I did was thank him, right,
Speaker 4: because I don't think I'd ever done that, you know.
Speaker 4: I was like thank you for giving me the opportunity
Speaker 4: to be on the show, like, you know, like it
Speaker 4: obviously you changed my life. But you know, I go,
Speaker 4: I don't know if you saw the tweet I put out.
Speaker 4: He's like, oh, I saw everyone wrote stories about and
Speaker 4: I have you ever thought about potentially doing something like that?
Speaker 4: And he was like, yeah, nope, I have no interest
Speaker 4: at all, you know what I mean, Like nope, we're.
Speaker 2: Good, you know, like good to finish that.
Speaker 4: Yeah. So I ended up having dinner with Brian Cranston
Speaker 4: like a few weeks later, and we were talking about it,
Speaker 4: and he was like, there is not a role that
Speaker 4: I've ever played that I want the chance to revisit
Speaker 4: more than how like this is now post Breaking Bad
Speaker 4: and all the other things he's done. And I thought
Speaker 4: that was the coolest thing that like he was really
Speaker 4: into it, you know because obviously his career went insane
Speaker 4: after the show and he really took the lead from
Speaker 4: that moment. And this was ten years ago and he
Speaker 4: kind of he got Linwood on board. It came up
Speaker 4: with an idea. He's the one who went in with
Speaker 4: the networks and he really kind of pushed it. So
Speaker 4: we knew there was a possibility for the last like
Speaker 4: eight years that it could happen, Like they kept saying, Oh,
Speaker 4: it might happen, it might happen, we'll see. And so
Speaker 4: when I got the official call that it was happening, obviously,
Speaker 4: I was absolutely thrilled. It was not the best timing
Speaker 4: for me because I just signed like a two year
Speaker 4: deal with Ford and with the NASCAR, and you know,
Speaker 4: we raced thirty something weekends a year, you know what
Speaker 4: I mean, So wow, But they were so gracious, like
Speaker 4: the show, they really worked around my racing schedule. So
Speaker 4: we filmed Sunday through Thursdays. So I'd filmed Sunday, I'd
Speaker 4: leave Thursday, fly to Tennessee race Friday, fly back Saturday,
Speaker 4: film Sunday through Thursday. So it was a lot. But
Speaker 4: you know, I going back to the opportunity thing that
Speaker 4: we talk I was talking about earlier, like I knew
Speaker 4: that I was so lucky to get to race full
Speaker 4: time but then also get to do the show again.
Speaker 4: I was like, I'm gonna be tired, but I got
Speaker 4: to do it and give it one hundred percent and
Speaker 4: it was awesome. We had a great time.
Speaker 2: Oh that's so great.
Speaker 3: Were you surprised by how easy it was to slide
Speaker 3: right back into character or was it not so easy?
Speaker 4: It was the simplest thing I've ever done in my life. Like,
Speaker 4: you know, we hadn't really seen each other, most of
Speaker 4: us in twenty years, you knownineteen years whatever, and it
Speaker 4: was as if not a single second had gone by,
Speaker 4: like personally, like even just like off camera, but then
Speaker 4: even more like on camera, like playing the characters, being Malcolm,
Speaker 4: like you know, just in playing Reefs. It was as
Speaker 4: if like we'd been doing it NonStop for twenty years.
Speaker 4: I had. I had a lot of fun because I
Speaker 4: realized as a kid when I was on the show
Speaker 4: originally not that I didn't care, but like I didn't prepare, right,
Speaker 4: I read the words and they were really good. There
Speaker 4: was good writing, and I said the words like that
Speaker 4: was my prep as an actor, you know, just knowing
Speaker 4: the words, you know what I mean. And so it
Speaker 4: was fun as an adult where now I do care,
Speaker 4: right that I don't care, but I didn't care, you know,
Speaker 4: like I wanted to really make sure I was getting
Speaker 4: everything out of the scenes and the emotions in this
Speaker 4: four episodes, there's a lot of emotion highs and Lows
Speaker 4: and I had such an amazing time with it, like
Speaker 4: just even getting an act with Brian again and act
Speaker 4: with Chane again. But it was the first time in
Speaker 4: my life in the how long I've been actor since
Speaker 4: nineteen ninety four, I don't know, Yeah, you know that
Speaker 4: we finished the show. I was happy to have the
Speaker 4: label actor, oh, like next to my name, Like I honestly,
Speaker 4: cause I've always been like, oh, I act, but I'm
Speaker 4: not an actor, right, Like, it's one of the things
Speaker 4: I do, you know what I mean? But I was.
Speaker 4: I was so genuinely proud to get to do that
Speaker 4: and had such a good time that I yeah, I
Speaker 4: loved it. I had I had a blast.
Speaker 2: Oh I love that.
Speaker 3: Well, congratulations to you on that names. Frankie and I
Speaker 3: are just getting started. This Friday, he will be back
Speaker 3: on teen Beat for a bonus episode where we will
Speaker 3: listen to one of your voice memos and learn more
Speaker 3: about the world's most famous race car driving actor, and
Speaker 3: you can join in on the fun as well. Just
Speaker 3: send your own embarrassing story from childhood recorded on a
Speaker 3: one to two minute voice memo to Teenbeatpod at gmail
Speaker 3: dot com, and I would love to play it on
Speaker 3: a few your episode and don't forget Malcolm in the
Speaker 3: Middle Life. Still Unfair premieres on Hulu and Disney Plus
Speaker 3: April tenth. I Am excited and you should be too.
Speaker 3: Teen Beat is an iHeart podcast produced and hosted by
Speaker 3: Danielle Fischel, Executive producers Jensen Carp and Amy Sugarman, Executive
Speaker 3: in charge of production Danielle Romo, producer and editor Tara Subach.
Speaker 3: The theme song is by mar Coppus. Yes that Mark Coppus.
Speaker 3: Follow us on Instagram at teen beat Pod.