Frankie Muniz wanted his son to see him 'working really hard' in life
Frankie Muniz wanted his son to see him "working really hard" in life.
The 39-year-old actor - who shot to fame in the early 2000s when he played the title role on 'Malcolm in the Middle' - welcomed Mauz, four, in 2021 with his wife Paige Price and admitted that was when he decided to focus on his secondary career as a NASCAR race driver.
Speaking on the 'Drive' podcast, he explained: "I literally was holding him, my son, in the hospital bed, and I remember thinking, 'Who is he going to grow up thinking that I am?
"Sure, I could say, 'Here's what Daddy used to do, Daddy used to be an actor, Daddy used to do that.' But I wanted him to see me working really hard for something, striving for something, and all the ups and downs that come with it. And I really felt like I had unfinished business in the racing world."
Frankie noted that when his son arrived, that was when he wasn't doing much professionally, and that as the moment he decided that the sport was something he could inject his own "effort and passion" into whilst acting took a backseat.
He added: "When my son was born in 2021, it was the first time in my life that I wasn't really doing anything. I was always doing something that I could put effort into and passion into, and in 2021 I was kind of in this in-between state."
Frankie continues to act in projects such as 'Renner' and is currently filming a revival of the series that made him famous, but has been candid about his struggles with child stardom.
Speaking on the 'Inside You' podcast earlier this year, he explained: "I went with my mom up to New York and we were going on like six auditions a day and kind of doing the whole grind.
'And I started booking things and never went back to North Carolina… it was kind of this really weird dynamic to look at now."
'It actually makes me a little bit sad to realise that me following my dream and the things that I got to do affected every single member of my family.
'When it's happening you don't realize the sacrifice that every single person is making for you.'
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