Frankie Muniz

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Speaker 1: That's okay, becaus no one here is.

00:00:27
Speaker 2: Hello and welcome to teen Beat.

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Speaker 3: I am your host, Danielle Fischel, a former child actor who spent her formative teenage years on a family sitcom where, for some unexplained reason, our middle school teacher followed us all the way to college. But is that important to unpack right now? Absolutely not, and that's because my current focus is talking to interesting people about their own upbringings and the universal understanding that being a teenager is both awkward and embarrassing no matter who you are.

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Speaker 2: I gave you my.

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Speaker 3: Child good, It's time we hear yours. But this week I am joined by a fellow forty something who traded in their traditional teenage years to punch a time card and mature in real time in front of millions of fans.

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Speaker 2: But somehow, for.

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Speaker 3: Him being the titular character on a hit TV show in his case, Malcolm in the Middle, is maybe the least interesting thing about him.

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Speaker 2: Don't get me wrong.

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Speaker 3: He was nominated for an Emmy and two Golden Globes for the role, and it led to movies like Big Fat Liar, Agent Cody Banks and Deuces Wild, leading CBS News to call him at the time one of Hollywood's most bankable teens, which I'm sure doesn't add any pressure to an already insane situation. But again, the guy is an onion when it comes to layers. In two thousand and eight, he put his acting career on hold to pursue a career in race car driving, you know as one does, focusing on open wheel racing, then stock cars, and now NASCAR trucks. Currently competing for Team Realm. He somehow turned what once looked like a vanity Weekend Warrior decision into a full on impressive career in sports. It's like if Keanu Reeves and Dogstar headlined Coachella. He also knew what to do with that Malcolm Money, becoming an entrepreneur and real estate investor, purchasing and selling parking garages, buying olive oil and vinegar specialty shops, and in turn avoiding the pitfalls that trapped so many of our peers.

00:02:29
Speaker 2: And now, like.

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Speaker 3: Someone else I know, he has been brought back to star as an adult in a revival of the show that made him famous as a kid, Malcolm in the Middle, Life's Still Unfair, a four episode event, will premiere on Hulu on April tenth. But first, this uber famous kid star turned well adjusted parking garage connoisseur, olive oil expert, and race car driver will sit with me to find the not so smooth off screen parts of his childhood, because I'm sure they exist somehow. So welcome to teen Beat the iconic Frankie Munez.

00:03:06
Speaker 2: Hey, Hey, how are you good?

00:03:09
Speaker 4: Are you? Thanks for having me on?

00:03:10
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, thank you for being here.

00:03:12
Speaker 3: Are you maybe the most interesting man in the world.

00:03:17
Speaker 4: I don't. I don't feel like I am. I get when I hear like the intro and of all the things I do, and I'm reminded of all the things I do. I guess on paper it may seem that way, but like me, in my life and my head, like I feel like I still have so many things that I want to do right, So like just yeah, I've accomplished a lot, but I feel like I haven't nearly accomplished as much as I want to. So, uh, I don't know, I still feel like I got a lot of unfinished business to handle.

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Speaker 2: So you're endlessly curious.

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Speaker 3: You just there's like you have You're fascinated with lots of different things and you want to tackle them all.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, and I don't. I don't necessarily make a plan, right, so like I'm not like, Okay, I really want to get into this. It's kind of like a lot of the things I've done have been spur the moment, this visions. But when I commit to something, I just dive in one hundred percent. Like I don't have hobbies, Like there's no such thing as a hobby for me, right, It's like no, no, I want to be the best, you know, Like like I can't go bowling because then I'm gonna want to be on the Professional Bowl or you know, league or whatever it is. Yeah, So it's just kind of my personality. Like I've always looked. I've always had this weird feeling. I remember literally being like eight nine years old and feeling like I was running out of time. I've always had this weird like I've got to try to wake up early and do as much as I can during the day because like there's so much I want to do and it's kind of stuck with me forever. So there's good and bad of that, right, Like I'm a little neurotic, but at the same time, like I've lived a full life, and but like I said, I still got a lot more I want to do.

00:04:44
Speaker 3: Wow, that's Have you ever thought about writing a memoir knowing that you feel like you have so much you want to do? You probably feel like you're way too young to write a memoir. But I feel like your memoir, if and when you choose to write it will be fascinating.

00:04:58
Speaker 4: I haven't actually thought about it. I don't think i'm a I'm not a good writer at least. Like my least favorite subject in school was English. Like I hated writing essays. I didn't like writing like I'm a math guy, you know what I mean. Yeah, although I hated math because they wanted me to show my work. I'm like, I just did in my head, Like I just know the answer. I don't know how I got it, but I know it.

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Speaker 2: You know, and you're right and I was right, So like what does it matter? I know? That is such a frustrating feeling.

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Speaker 3: I actually this is a really stupid story. But in college I got I got a B in a math class. And in college I was I was very tapanga. I got all a's and I got a B in a math class because on my final one of the ten point questions. Yeah, I got zero points for because I didn't show all my work even though I got the answer right.

00:05:51
Speaker 4: That is so frustrating.

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Speaker 2: I was furious.

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Speaker 4: I used to get mad because they're like, oh, you got to show your work. But it's like, well it takes half a page or it takes a whole page, Like I don't want to waste all that page. Like I know the answer just by looking at it, Like, why do I need you know what I mean, I'm trying to save the trees. What are you talking about exactly?

00:06:06
Speaker 2: You were doing a good thing.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, well, we are a part of a small little sect of actors, a fraternity almost where even decades later, our character name is constantly yelled at us in airports.

00:06:20
Speaker 2: We have to stick together, you know.

00:06:21
Speaker 3: Yes, you were born in New Jersey and then you moved to North Carolina shortly thereafter. Neither of those are big Hollywood feeder towns. So are you always a little performer with big dreams?

00:06:36
Speaker 4: No? You know, I think back, and I never I never said I wanted to be an actor. It's one of the many things I did, and it just kind of took over my life right like. I. Yeah, I was from New Jersey. My dad worked for IBN. Transferred us down to North Carolina when I was like five or six, and I played every sport there was. I was a soccer player, football player, basketball, I did tap in jazz. I don't know why, but I did. I just did a little bit of everything. And it was my sister who actually she signed up for like a summer arts camp and they have a Raleigh Memorial Auditorium there and Raleigh. It's it's a big theater, like twenty five hundred three thousand theater and they put on shows at the end of the summer. And I thought it was really cool, but it wasn't something I was like, I have to do that. I was like, that seems cool. So she was going to continue down the path of trying to act or acting and doing theater and stuff. And we were jumping on the trampoline in our backyard and she was practicing the song that she was going to sing. It's like, you should audition, and I was like sure. So she picked Let's Go Fly Kite from Mary Poppins. I learned it, I went in and I sang it for it was for Christmas Carol, and I got the part of Tiny Tin, and like the second or third rehearsal, an agent went up to my mom was like, there's something out him, like I'd love to represent him. We didn't even know what it was, but we're like sure. So then started going on auditions and like from that moment until I kind of not stopped acting, but like took a break from acting, I never stopped acting, like you know, so it just kind of took over and just kind of happened, if that makes sense.

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Speaker 3: Yes, wow, I did not realize that that's really that's really impressive. Very few people one have it happened that quickly for them, but two to never stop working that entire time until you made the choice.

00:08:30
Speaker 2: I'm going to put this on pause.

00:08:32
Speaker 4: For a moment. Yes, for sure, for sure, so you do.

00:08:35
Speaker 3: Eventually, then moved to Burbank, which is a city where many child actor dreams do come true.

00:08:40
Speaker 2: Do you remember.

00:08:41
Speaker 3: Those first few days in La? Was there like any culture shock for you?

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Speaker 4: I remember, Actually I came out before I got Malcolm. My first time to LA, I was doing a screen test for my Dog's Skip Oh and I flew in and I didn't know it was the director, but he had picked me up at the airport and he was taking us around. I remember just being so wowed by La, right, like I've been in New York City, but like Ali just seemed just so different, and seeing the Hollywood Sign and he kind of took us through all like the little touristy things to kind of see it, and I don't know, I just remember being so afraid for my mom to get on the freeway because like maybe it was like in the movie Clueless, where like they get freaked out when they go on the freeway and like there's no I was like, you're not gonna to turn around, We're gonna get lost. You know. That was like my memory of like the first time I was in LA. But yeah, no, I definitely had culture shock. It's definitely a different world than than what I kind of knew from New York City, you know what I mean?

00:09:37
Speaker 2: But uh, for sure.

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Speaker 3: But yeah, well you were twelve at the time, right when you first made your way out here, so that's obviously a very formative age. Was it hard to make friends and basically start a new life here?

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Speaker 4: Yes? No, I mean I was. I was always the words not a loaner. I wasn't a loaner, but like I was always fine by myself made sense, you know what I mean, Like like like my sister, you know, if I could talk about her like she wasn't like she needed her friend group. She wanted her friend group. I was cool, Like if I if I had to go somewhere and leave and didn't see them, I would make friends or or not, even if I didn't, Like I didn't necessarily care. But I don't know if you remember, like the oak Wood Apartments, Oh of course course, right, So I think every person who comes out to LA probably stays at the Oakwood at some point, you know, like you know, especially child actors and stuff like that. So we didn't live there, but the kid who played Dewey Eric he lived there, so we'd go hang out with him, and I met a lot of kids that were there. Yeah, so my mom was I remember mom being so frustrated. She's like, wait, you didn't want to live at the oak Woods, but you're there every day hanging out with these kids.

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Speaker 1: Right.

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Speaker 4: So I had like my little friend group and we would drive like rye little Razor scooters all around the Oakwood apartments and hang up. You know whatever. It was so I felt like I had my little gang, like I didn't, you know, I didn't feel like I was missing out on friends for sure.

00:10:58
Speaker 2: You know, good good.

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Speaker 4: They were all for like a month or two trying to be an actor. Then they went back to Kansas or.

00:11:03
Speaker 3: Right, a rotating cast of friends exactly. Do you remember meeting other similar age kids at auditions? Some of my best friends still to this day I met at an audition.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, no, I I you know, because I did most of my auditioning in New York, and I remember there was I never really became friends with them, I guess, but there was like a few boys that you'd see and we were like, oh, Michael's here.

00:11:34
Speaker 3: Great, he always books the roles I want. Do you remember for me to write your social Security number down?

00:11:42
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's true. Yeah, you write the name agents socially?

00:11:46
Speaker 2: Why why why do you need that for my audition?

00:11:49
Speaker 4: That's true. That is a weird thing. I never thought about that. That is so weird.

00:11:52
Speaker 2: I've looked back at that and I'm like, why.

00:11:54
Speaker 4: Were we just like, yeah, sure, are you in the union, I'm eligible, okay.

00:11:59
Speaker 2: And I'm this agency. It's so funny.

00:12:02
Speaker 3: Okay, so you book some commercials, you do a movie, but then comes the big break.

00:12:07
Speaker 2: What was the Malcolm in the Middle audition?

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Speaker 4: Like all right, so it's a pretty It's actually a pretty fun story because when I was in New York, we were going on I don't know, four six auditions a day, right, because I was doing everything from commercials, theater, print, movie, whatever it was. Right, So we we'd have our whole day booked out. And the day I was supposed to go on the Malcolm premiere, I had booked a Pizza Hut commercial. Oh, and like it was filming in Brooklyn, and I was like, so, Mom, we have to be at the you know. I was kind of the I don't want to say the responsible one, but.

00:12:38
Speaker 2: I was scheduler.

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Speaker 4: I was I like, I knew what time we had to leave, Like, I'm the one who knew what time the bus came for the New Jersey Transit to get us to the Port Authority. I knew all the subway maps, how to get everywhere. And I was like, Mom, there's no way that we can make it for the ten o'clock Pizza Huck commercial if we go to this audition at nine it was at like fifteen to fifteen Broadway. I was like, there's no way, Like, we're not going. I think you should just go. Maybe we'll go early. We'll see if they can they can they can squeeze you in early, and if not, we'll leave. So I remember being really really frustrated because I was like, you know, you're gonna ruin my big pizza hut, my big break. Okay, you know what I mean. I was one of nineteen kids that was gonna be in this commercial.

00:13:17
Speaker 2: Okay, this was said, Pizza Hut is life.

00:13:20
Speaker 4: Yeah. So we go in early and the cast director wasn't even there yet, and I was like, mom, let's just go, please, let's go. And right when we went to leave, the cast director came and she's like, oh, you're early. I was like, I have to do this commercial. She was coming really quick. I'll put you on tape super quick. So I go to the audition and I was just angry, like I was. I was just frustrated and angry. I read it as nonchalant quick as I could, just to get through it, just to say I did it so we can get to my audition. So it was like two days later we get a call and they're like, hey, they really liked your tape and they want you to come in and do more scenes. I was like, what, Like I sucked.

00:14:01
Speaker 2: I was terrible at that one. I didn't even try.

00:14:03
Speaker 4: I really didn't try. But we hadn't even read the script because like back then, like you very rarely got the scripts. You just got like whatever the sides were. He didn't really know. You get the breakdown and you're like, I guess this is how you'd act. I don't know, you know what I mean. So we were sitting in the in the waiting room about to go do the more scenes, and they gave us the script and my mom and I were reading it and we were just cracking up, like we loved it. But I realized how I did the audition the initial that was Malcolm. He was frustrated, he was angry, he thought the world was out to get him, you know what I mean, and you know, just wanted to like move on right. So it it worked out pretty good. And you know, here I am.

00:14:44
Speaker 3: Thank god that your mom didn't care as much about the subway schedule as you did, because without that would you have even had that angst and anger exactly. The pilot episode of Malcolm in the Middle had twenty three million viewers, The second episode somehow best did that with twenty six million, and then My Dog Skip comes out at basically the same time. How long did it take for things to drastically change in your life?

00:15:16
Speaker 4: I have two stories there. One before the show even started airing, there was billboards everywhere, like they had bill Malcolm Middle billboards all over the place, and I remember being so excited. There was one at the mall like that I by the house I lived in New Jersey, and like I stood next to it, like and with like see if people would notice that it was me, you know what I mean, Like right before the show came on. And but I remember riding in the subway one day and people were staring at me. The show hadn't aired yet, you know what I mean. And I remember going to my mom. I go, Mom, like, why is your own seria? Like do I have something on my face? And finally someone walked up to me and they were like, you're going to be on that show. I saw you're the kid It's gonna be on that show, And I was like, whoa. The show hasn't even come out yet but people already, which was kind of like a crazy feeling, right going from zero. And to add to that story, you know, we were in New York City every day and my mom and I we would always take the bus to the Poort Authority and so we'd walk through Times Square and we'd always be there around the time when TRL was being filmed, right, And so we would we would be down in the crowd and we'd wait to see what celebrity was going to come to the glass and wave down and think we'd get pictures. Or I'd also go if we were up by where David Letterman filmed, we'd go there and like I got a picture with Sydney Crawford, you know, like I was trying to get like to see the celebrities. And it was like I think two or three months later, I was waving down to the crowd. And that was a weird thing, right, because like it just it does.

00:16:49
Speaker 2: It happens quick, right, It.

00:16:52
Speaker 4: Just being a kid trying to be an actor to all of a sudden, like everyone knows who you are, and you know, it's it's it's really hard to explain.

00:17:01
Speaker 2: For sure.

00:17:01
Speaker 3: I bet somewhere there is a photo of you in the crowd down below TRL.

00:17:07
Speaker 2: You know what I mean.

00:17:08
Speaker 4: Like, I was at my mom's house recently and she pulled out a photo album and we went we stood outside of the Grammys one year, I think it was nineteen ninety seven or nineteen ninety eight, and we were out there for fifteen hours waiting for like the celebrity. Like we had a really good spot, like waiting for everyone to come out of the cars. And I was a really big Hanson fan. Yeah, same every time, and like they came out of their van and I have, like, you know, I had like a one to ten you know, film camera, and all those photos were there. And it's weird because like I ended up becoming like best friends with Zach Hanson. I'm like, how weird is like you know, when you think about it, you know of where you are and where your life takes you.

00:17:50
Speaker 2: But uh, wow, that's really cool.

00:17:52
Speaker 4: I'm sure there are or you can watch all episodes of TRL. You'll see me my mom down in the crowd.

00:17:56
Speaker 2: Waven No No, I love that. I think that's great. I know you.

00:18:12
Speaker 3: Mentioned you don't really have hobbies, you really throw yourself into them, But as a teenager or as a kid.

00:18:18
Speaker 2: Did you have hobbies?

00:18:19
Speaker 3: Were you able to throw yourself into things while you were also still working full time? I mean, yeah, yeah, you've probably not had many days off.

00:18:27
Speaker 4: Yeah. I didn't have many days off. But I loved basketball. I played in the NBA Entertainment League. That was like life to me. You know. I thought I had a shot to make it in the NBA. You know, five four, you know, Frankie Munits. But I was actually pretty good at basketball, but that was like my my thing. And then I loved golf. I played golf all the time. And so those are those were my two. Like if I had time, that's what I was I was probably doing. I was always into cars, like not as a driver yet, but like just loved the idea of having cars and going to car shows and stuff like that. So I do that a little bit in LA. But but no, I mean I think if I added up all the days off I had from eight years old to twenty when the show ended, like maybe I get forty days off in that in that span, you know what I mean, there wasn't a lot of time to you know, because even on like the days where I didn't have anything. You would have tons of press, right My mom would wake me up and be like, oh, you got you know, five radio interviews they schedule that you have to do, and then you have this, and then you have to go here, and then we're flying here. So you're always doing something, you know what I mean back then, and so it's hard to really dive into anything else, you know what I mean.

00:19:44
Speaker 3: At that time, a lot of us kid actors or former kid actors talk about how we avoided burnout or whether or not we did experience burnout. Yeah, did you ever feel like you experienced being really burnt out with the industry?

00:19:59
Speaker 4: I think I did. I mean I've never I've never really talked about it. I just remember just being just tired in general. You know. I started saying no, which like I'm not a no person, right, like meaning like you know, I'd be like, I really, I just don't want to, like I don't want to do that anymore. And but then I also knew like the how great of an opportunity I had, right, So like there was a there was a mix of like, yeah, you're tired, but you got to fight through because like you don't know when it's gonna end. But also when you're in it, you don't think it's gonna end, if that makes sense, right, Like you think that like it's gonna be forever like that, where now I can look back at it and go, okay, I could see where I was getting pretty burned out at that point, you know what I mean, you know, but I have a greater appreciation for opportunity now because you know, like once you you've had it, you step away from it for a little bit, and then when you get the opportunity again, like you know, I'm diving in one hundred percent, you know what I mean, because I know how lucky I am, and I know it doesn't last forever, right exactly, you know, take it while you have it, you know, like and get to experience it. And I just have a different mindset in general for everything, like for life in general. So you know, having stepped away I think was a positive for me in the sense that I've kind of said it saved my life because it just made me have a greater appreciation for the small things, If that makes sense. I don't know.

00:21:25
Speaker 2: Totally understand, couldn't relate more.

00:21:27
Speaker 3: I am exactly the same way I think I definitely experienced burnout. I definitely took myself out of the industry focused on something else, something else that I loved that was really good for me. And then now being back in it the way I am, I have a just a totally different perspective on it all.

00:21:44
Speaker 4: Now.

00:21:45
Speaker 3: There's something about age also that just, you know, makes you appreciate things differently than you do when when you're young, and there's so much to think about when you're a kid, you know, and you've got a full time job, and it's a It's not that being an adult is really any easier, but it's just different for sure. For sure, a lot of child stars from your class haven't been as lucky as you or I and weren't able to find balance in maybe when the jobs stop rolling in or when we start saying no to jobs finding other things.

00:22:17
Speaker 2: That we love. What do you think helped you survive?

00:22:21
Speaker 3: Is it that that desire to just throw yourself into everything one hundred percent?

00:22:26
Speaker 4: I think so, you know. I Oddly I never fully felt like I belonged in Hollywood, Like even when I was on the show right and I had people coming up to me, or I was nominated for awards, and I'd be at these award shows and I was like, how am I even invited here? You know, never mind like associated with these people, Like I felt like an outsider. I have this weird thing where I grew up, and it's funny now because like I've talked to my parents about it. Like I grew up thinking the only people who like did drugs were criminals, you know what I mean? Yep, like literally like like only bad guys somehow, and then like you know, and I talked to my dad, and my Dad's like I smoked pot every single day that you were alive, you know what I mean, Like I had no idea. You know, you're like your mom was smoked cnagrettes. I was like why, Like no way, you know, not mom, you know exactly. So like being in the Hollywood world, right, you are surrounded by it, but somehow I wasn't, Like somehow I knew it was there, but like I no one pushed anything on me, No one. I never experienced that. So I remember being like eighteen or nineteen, you know, I'd been on Malcolm for a bunch of years. I was going to all the things, all the parties, blah, blah blah, and I finally really started to see it, like to see kind of that. I was like, oh, I'm the odd one.

00:23:54
Speaker 2: You know what I mean, dabbling.

00:23:57
Speaker 4: Yeah, I'm the one who's not doing And but going back to like I said when I was eight, where I always felt like I was running out of time. I felt like at eighteen that I was sixty and I lived so many years that I was like, oh, if I haven't done it now, there's no reason for me to start right exactly. Just so it was like, I know that's necessarily with the question was, but I feel like a lot of people kind of get sucked into that part of the world. But even then, when the show ended and I had the opportunity to go racing, like I wanted to commit to that. I wanted to do that. So I've always gone from like I've never not been busy, right right, I never really went through like a lull if that makes sense, to where I was like, oh wait, oh man, where I think a lot of child actors, especially where like you grow up in it and once you have some success, you have so many people coming up to you all the time telling you how much they love your stuff. For you or you know, and you're getting all these things and you know, thrown at you and you're traveling all around the world and then it stops. Yeah, that probably is hard, right, like to feel like you're here and then realize that like nobody cares, nobody really cares in the end. Yes, So I feel like a lot of people go down a path of like looking for something to fill that void, you know what I mean, or.

00:25:22
Speaker 3: You know, and going from being extremely busy to having a lot of time on your hands. Yeah, and if you have too much time on your hands and you allow access to the wrong people, there will be people who will come and tell you what you should fill your time with exactly.

00:25:34
Speaker 4: Yeah. So I just never I never really necessarily went through that, I guess. I don't know. I don't know if I answered your question there, but yeah.

00:25:43
Speaker 2: He did.

00:25:44
Speaker 3: Roundabout way, Where does Brian Cranston fall into this equation? What was he like as a TV dad and possibly mentor over the years?

00:25:52
Speaker 4: I mean, Brian, I've always said, like, when people ask me who my favorite actor I work with is, I always say Brian. For a number of reasons. A. I've never seen someone commit one hundred percent to every single moment that they're on set, right, So, like I always admired that because you know, like when you're doing a show for a long time, like eventually I'm kind of tired, you know.

00:26:16
Speaker 2: Like I'm phoning it in.

00:26:17
Speaker 4: You sure we're not done? We got it, you know what I mean? Like Ryan never said that, right, he was always like, gave it if he was off camera, you know what I mean, gave the same performance as he did if it was his close up, Like, gave it as all to every single person on set. He was always just so nice and genuine and cared. And that's something that's even like followed over the last twenty years. Like, no matter what it is I've been doing, he's always reached out. He's always supported it. Right when I owned an olive oil company, he bought the olive oil. If I was in a band, he came to the show right like you know what I mean, Like he's always kind of been like that, and I've always admired him a for that, but also just his work ethic. You know, I want the way I look at him, like as an actor or as a professional or whatever it is, as a person, I feel like everyone who works with him has the same thing to say about him, And I want that for me, right, I want people to think that way, Like I want to have that kind of impression on people. So like in the New Malcolm episodes, Malcolm has a daughter, right, So like I wanted to be that influence to her, the actress, you know what I mean, to where maybe she says the same thing about me in twenty years, I don't.

00:27:27
Speaker 3: Know, absolutely, I'll probably still be doing this podcast and I'll interview her and I'll let you know. I'll report back where she says you no longer live in La, right, No, yeah.

00:27:37
Speaker 4: I live in Scottsdale, Arizona.

00:27:39
Speaker 2: Okay.

00:27:39
Speaker 3: Was there a specific instance or a final straw that helped you realize that moving.

00:27:44
Speaker 2: Out of LA was vital for you?

00:27:46
Speaker 4: I was never an LA fan. Yeah, I don't know, maybe being that I was more like a New York guy, you know, like you know, just like opposite code, like just different. It's a different world. The traffic. I always felt like it was difficult to live, if that makes sense, Like to go to the store is hard. I packed, and you probably had the vala and you know, you know what I mean, Like I just I don't know and when. So when the show ended and I started racing, I finally realized that I'm on the road every week anyway, going to different racetracks around the country. Like I could be based anywhere.

00:28:22
Speaker 2: Right home base be anywhere, and there.

00:28:25
Speaker 4: Was not necessarily a reason for me to stay in La. So I actually remember I was with my ex girlfriend and we were at a store about to buy a barbecue from a house in LA and I was like, before I buy this barbecue, would you ever want to move to Scottsdale, And She's like, yeah. We left the line, got in our car, drove to Scottsdale, went into an open house that afternoon, bought it, and closed nine days later. And I've been there for eighteen years.

00:28:52
Speaker 3: By gosh, you literally said it that day and then went and just a place that you saw.

00:28:59
Speaker 4: Yeah. So but I, you know, I say, leaving La same, you know, thing like it made me just I started looking up, Like I started enjoying the small things of life, you know, like I go hiking, I ride mountain bikes, I I do things that I just I'm sure is here they haven't here. But like I just didn't want to leave my house, like I didn't want to do it. I know people love LA and yeah, nothing against you know, I'm sure it's a great place. It just wasn't for me, right, And when I'm home, like when I'm in Scotstille, which is rare these days because I'm on the road three hundred plus days a year with the racing, but I truly feel like that's where I'm supposed to be. And it feels good to feel like you're where you're supposed to be, if that makes sense.

00:29:41
Speaker 3: Totally Okay, very serious question here. What type of person do you think you would have been had you gone by Frank Munez oh go instead of Frankie.

00:29:53
Speaker 2: Who's frank? Who do you think Frank is?

00:29:57
Speaker 4: Oh? Man, that's a funny one because you know, I just turned forty, right, and I'm still Frankie Munich like I was. Like, you know, people I sometimes get a little like crap for it. They're like, are you still Frankie? But my dad, I'm the fourth I'm Francisco mune Is the fourth, right, Okay, so my dad has always been frank to me.

00:30:13
Speaker 2: Okay, but Frank just seems so old and like born. You know what I mean, you don't want to be Frank.

00:30:22
Speaker 4: Yeah, So I don't know. I've just I've never really I've never fully thought about being Frank. Who would Frank Muni as be uh well, you know, I know, like Rick Ricky Schroeder became Rick Schroeder. You know, didn't really do much for it.

00:30:37
Speaker 3: It didn't change much. Oh yeah, no, not career wise. I don't even mean career. I just mean, would you be a totally different person had you been Frank?

00:30:44
Speaker 4: Oh? Man, I don't. I don't know. You know, my real name is Francisco.

00:30:47
Speaker 2: Yeah.

00:30:47
Speaker 4: And I was joking with my wife, you know, She's like, you know what someone that someone literally said like why are you still Franky? And I was like, is it weird that, like like I'm forty and I'm Frankie. I don't know, it's just my name. I don't know, I think. And she's like, maybe you should go by Francisco. And I was like, oh, hell no, like you know that that's my name, but like it's so not my name, right, And I was like, what about what if I just came out as like Cisco Munits and just Cisco From how long?

00:31:13
Speaker 2: I now go by Cisco that's it.

00:31:16
Speaker 4: You only call me Cisco be.

00:31:19
Speaker 3: The only person to move to Scottsdale and then become more Hollywood.

00:31:25
Speaker 4: I don't know. I like not. I don't want to say I like boring jobs because don't get me wrong, but like I love like bookkeeping and accounting. So I think Frank Munis would be like, would work at H and R Block and he would do your taxes really quick and get you that you know, two dollars refund and you'd be thrilled.

00:31:42
Speaker 3: And you'd also get to put all those skills of like of organization and and you know, planning, you get to put all that to I think this is just a great thing for you to know that the.

00:31:53
Speaker 4: Future has in store for me. Like when I'm done racing, it's like, yeah, I'm probably just going to open an accounting for.

00:31:59
Speaker 3: You're still too young and athletic to be Frank. Frankie is young and athletic and like super busy. Yeah, And I think Frank is eventually when you need to settle down, when your knees hurt or something and you need to go, I'm.

00:32:11
Speaker 4: Close because my knees are aching. That's for sure.

00:32:27
Speaker 2: What age did racing become an interest for you.

00:32:30
Speaker 3: You said you were always interested in cars, but when did the idea of racing them?

00:32:37
Speaker 4: Same thing. I remember being a kid. My family did not like racing. So that's not like I went to races with my dad or they didn't watch it on TV. But I always woke up at like four or five in the morning, even when I was five six years old. Yeah, you know, I'd go in the living room and I put on the TV. And on the weekends, the Formula One races would be on at like five am because it's you know, they're in Europe or whatever. I remember watching those, and I watched the Indie car and I watched NASCAR races and I remember loving it. But like it never crossed my mind that ever would be a race car driver, because like it's like saying you want to be an astronaut, Like yeah, it's a dream, but like, how do how do you do that? Like right, you know, no one really does that, you know what I mean? So I actually I thought about this the other day and I and it was the first time I thought about it. The reason why I'm a race car driver is actually because of Brian Kranston, and I don't think I've ever said this out loud to like on an interview. So he did. He and Chris Masterson, who played Francis on Malcolm, they got invited to do the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach Pro Celebrity Race. And this was like two thousand and two or two thousand and three, and Brian came back from that and he goes, it was the most incredible thing I've ever done in my life. And if you because you knew I loved cars, it's like, if they ever ask you, you have to say yes, but you have to be eighteen. I think I was seventeen at the time. So the following year they asked me, yeah, I need you do it, and they send you out to like Palmdale, and you like train at Willow Springs Raceway for a few weeks and it's a very serious's a pro cleven race, but like it's very serious.

00:34:12
Speaker 2: There's still a risk of death.

00:34:14
Speaker 4: Yes, yeah, And I just remember loving it, but I didn't think I'd be good at it, but I ended up winning the race.

00:34:23
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh.

00:34:24
Speaker 4: But that feeling, I mean, I've experienced a lot of cool things in my life that feeling of crossing the finish line first is unlike anything I've ever experienced, because like as an actor, I could dedicate my life to a role or to a job and put in what I think is the best performance I've ever done in my life and people see it and they're like, Eh, there's okay. You're subjective, right, Some people love it, some people hate it. You know, where in racing, if you're the best, you win, and if you're not, you don't. You know, it's right there, you know, And I've never had something that been a part of that. That's the case. So winning that was amazing. A pro team approached me after that race. I was like, Hey, we we'd love to just put you in the car just for fun, like just for a test. Just come down, fly to Houston. We'll put in the race car. You can have two fun days and that'll be it. I was like, okay. And I remember sitting in the race car. They were molding my seat because like they molded the seat to your body, and I was trembling. I was so scared because I was like, I don't know what I'm doing. I have no idea what I'm doing. And cut to the end of the two days, I was faster than their like professional driver, and they were like, we didn't really think anything of this, but like you you should do this, Like what's your experience. I go the pro celebrity race and Long Beach, you know, And so they signed me to a two year development deal. And the next thing I knew, like a month later, not knowing the rules of what the race, of the racing or what I was doing, I was racing against some of the top drivers in the world and it was a professional driver. So like it just kind of happened. Yes, But that was the same year. That was two thousand and six, and that was the year that malcommanded. So I had made the conscious decision when the show ended to say hey to my agency manager, I was like, I don't care what comes in, Like I'm going to focus. I'm going to try to focus on this. You know, I really want to try to be a race car driver, because if you're competing against guys that that's their lives, right, that's all they do, that's all they think about. They're in the shop, they're in the simulator, they're working at. You can't just show up and kind of do it.

00:36:30
Speaker 2: You know what exactly.

00:36:32
Speaker 4: So I wanted to do that, and that's what I did. And here I am now, you know, twenty twenty two years later racing NASCAR and I love it. Wow.

00:36:42
Speaker 3: I mean, while researching you, I was amazed to see that when I googled Frankie Munez, your racing information comes up first.

00:36:50
Speaker 4: Nice.

00:36:51
Speaker 2: Did you did you ever think that could actually happen?

00:36:54
Speaker 4: No? You know, look, I've been a cool thing. Like I've been recognized since I was twelve years old, right, so for the past thirty years, right.

00:37:04
Speaker 1: And.

00:37:06
Speaker 4: The coolest thing I've ever experienced is when people started coming up to me as fans of the racing. I don't know why, Like, I don't know why it meant so much to me, you know, because you know, I'm doing something that is different, that is unexpected. But like the fact that people do like it and appreciate it, or the rooting for me, Like I love that when I'm at the races and people come up to me with Frankie Munez like number thirty three shirts on, Like, I don't know why it's so cool to me because I don't know, I really.

00:37:38
Speaker 2: Really probably I can relate to it.

00:37:40
Speaker 3: In the sense that when people all you know again, since I was twelve as well Boy Meets World, I was twelve, twelve to nineteen when people would come up to me and they recognize me Astupanga, I love it. It means a great deal to me. But now that we have Pod meets World and people come up to me and recognize me for the pod and they know me, it feels it's totally different. Yes, to be appreciated for something that's you being you, you showing you know you. You the race car driver is not playing a characters. It's an accomplishment that you really own. And I don't know why we don't recognize that we also own the acting side too. It just feels like more of different. Yeah, it's just different. So I totally understand. Well, now in twenty twenty six you have said yes, much like I did for Girl Meets World back in twenty fourteen, you have decided to return to the character that will be named first in our obituaries. Malcolm in the Middle is back for a four episode special event. Take me through your thought process when you first got the call.

00:38:43
Speaker 4: I mean, obviously I was thrilled. This was a long time coming, right. I think I'd watched all the episodes for the first time in maybe twenty fourteen or twenty fifteen. I've never seen them, yep. And at the very end of it, I ended up tweeting, like, man, I just finished watching the show, Like I have so many thoughts. It's it was such a different show than I even thought we were making, like the comedy everything about it had. I enjoyed it as a fan, but I said something like, man, I would love to know what Malcolm and his family are up to now, because like the last episode is left so not vague, but like they expect Malcolm to become president of the United States, and yeah, like where where is he? And I tweeted it and that went like everywhere, like everyone picked it up and it kind of went viral, and I couldn't believe the like the fan reaction of the excitement of the potential of seeing more episodes. So I think that day I had or later that week, I called the creator, Lynwood Boomer and I didn't talk to him since the last episode of filming, and the first thing I did was thank him, right, because I don't think I'd ever done that, you know. I was like thank you for giving me the opportunity to be on the show, like, you know, like it obviously you changed my life. But you know, I go, I don't know if you saw the tweet I put out. He's like, oh, I saw everyone wrote stories about and I have you ever thought about potentially doing something like that? And he was like, yeah, nope, I have no interest at all, you know what I mean, Like nope, we're.

00:40:10
Speaker 2: Good, you know, like good to finish that.

00:40:12
Speaker 4: Yeah. So I ended up having dinner with Brian Cranston like a few weeks later, and we were talking about it, and he was like, there is not a role that I've ever played that I want the chance to revisit more than how like this is now post Breaking Bad and all the other things he's done. And I thought that was the coolest thing that like he was really into it, you know because obviously his career went insane after the show and he really took the lead from that moment. And this was ten years ago and he kind of he got Linwood on board. It came up with an idea. He's the one who went in with the networks and he really kind of pushed it. So we knew there was a possibility for the last like eight years that it could happen, Like they kept saying, Oh, it might happen, it might happen, we'll see. And so when I got the official call that it was happening, obviously, I was absolutely thrilled. It was not the best timing for me because I just signed like a two year deal with Ford and with the NASCAR, and you know, we raced thirty something weekends a year, you know what I mean, So wow, But they were so gracious, like the show, they really worked around my racing schedule. So we filmed Sunday through Thursdays. So I'd filmed Sunday, I'd leave Thursday, fly to Tennessee race Friday, fly back Saturday, film Sunday through Thursday. So it was a lot. But you know, I going back to the opportunity thing that we talk I was talking about earlier, like I knew that I was so lucky to get to race full time but then also get to do the show again. I was like, I'm gonna be tired, but I got to do it and give it one hundred percent and it was awesome. We had a great time.

00:41:45
Speaker 2: Oh that's so great.

00:41:46
Speaker 3: Were you surprised by how easy it was to slide right back into character or was it not so easy?

00:41:52
Speaker 4: It was the simplest thing I've ever done in my life. Like, you know, we hadn't really seen each other, most of us in twenty years, you knownineteen years whatever, and it was as if not a single second had gone by, like personally, like even just like off camera, but then even more like on camera, like playing the characters, being Malcolm, like you know, just in playing Reefs. It was as if like we'd been doing it NonStop for twenty years. I had. I had a lot of fun because I realized as a kid when I was on the show originally not that I didn't care, but like I didn't prepare, right, I read the words and they were really good. There was good writing, and I said the words like that was my prep as an actor, you know, just knowing the words, you know what I mean. And so it was fun as an adult where now I do care, right that I don't care, but I didn't care, you know, like I wanted to really make sure I was getting everything out of the scenes and the emotions in this four episodes, there's a lot of emotion highs and Lows and I had such an amazing time with it, like just even getting an act with Brian again and act with Chane again. But it was the first time in my life in the how long I've been actor since nineteen ninety four, I don't know, Yeah, you know that we finished the show. I was happy to have the label actor, oh, like next to my name, Like I honestly, cause I've always been like, oh, I act, but I'm not an actor, right, Like, it's one of the things I do, you know what I mean? But I was. I was so genuinely proud to get to do that and had such a good time that I yeah, I loved it. I had I had a blast.

00:43:30
Speaker 2: Oh I love that.

00:43:31
Speaker 3: Well, congratulations to you on that names. Frankie and I are just getting started. This Friday, he will be back on teen Beat for a bonus episode where we will listen to one of your voice memos and learn more about the world's most famous race car driving actor, and you can join in on the fun as well. Just send your own embarrassing story from childhood recorded on a one to two minute voice memo to Teenbeatpod at gmail dot com, and I would love to play it on a few your episode and don't forget Malcolm in the Middle Life. Still Unfair premieres on Hulu and Disney Plus April tenth. I Am excited and you should be too. Teen Beat is an iHeart podcast produced and hosted by Danielle Fischel, Executive producers Jensen Carp and Amy Sugarman, Executive in charge of production Danielle Romo, producer and editor Tara Subach. The theme song is by mar Coppus. Yes that Mark Coppus. Follow us on Instagram at teen beat Pod.