Frankie Muniz says life on the Malcolm In The Middle set was messier than the dysfunctional family the show portrayed.
The former child star is currently competing on the Australian version of I’m A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here!, and in a clip from a recent episode posted by news.com.au, Frankie shared a “story that no one knows” with his campmates about his time on the family comedy.
“There were two episodes I’m not in because I walked off the set,” Frankie said.
“Everyone was so afraid to stand up when certain people were controlling or rude or disrespectful. Like, they walked on pins and needles.”
“I remember being so mortified by watching people afraid to stand up for themselves. And I’m like, ‘Say something,’” he continued.
“I didn’t care if they told me I was never going back, because it was worth it to me.”
When one of Frankie’s I’m A Celebrity co-stars pointed out to him that the show was “based around you … so you had that power” to walk out without much consequence, he agreed, saying: “That helped.”
Although Frankie didn’t specify the episodes he’s not in, he’s credited on all 151 episodes of Malcolm In The Middle on IMDb alongside Bryan Cranston, Jane Kaczmarek, Christopher Masterson, Justin Berfield and Erik Per Sullivan, who all rounded out the main cast.
Frankie was a part of the hit Fox sitcom from its premiere in 2000 to its end in 2006.
HuffPost has reached out to Malcolm In The Middle creator Linwood Boomer for comment.
Recently, Frankie shared why he’ll never let his son become a child actor.
“I would never let my kid go into the business,” he told Australian outlet Pedestrian.TV in an interview last month.
“And not that I had a negative experience, because to be honest, my experience was 100% positive, but I know so many people — friends that were close to me — that had such insanely negative experiences.”