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Frankie Muniz Reveals Why He Hasn’t Spoken to Former Castmate Hilary Duff in 22 Years
Child actor Frankie Muniz recently got the chance to return his best-known role as Malcolm on the early 2000s sitcom Malcolm in the Middle when he got the call informing him that Disney+ had greenlit a four-episode revival called Malcolm in the Middle: Life’s Still Unfair.
Muniz, who had just kicked off his career as a professional racecar driver, was excited to revisit the role and reconnect with old castmates despite his busy racing schedule.
Recently, on an episode of “The Joe Vulpis Podcast,” Muniz opened up about what his days as a child actor were really like.
In 2003, halfway through Malcolm in the Middle’s six-year run, Muniz was offered the role of the title character in a teen spy film film called Agent Cody Banks.
Iconic fellow early 2000s child actor Hilary Duff also starred alongside Muniz in the film as his girlfriend Natalie Connors.
Muniz explained to Vulpis that at the time, he and Duff were very good friends, but Duff was not originally not supposed to play Natalie Connors.
“I was on the set of Lizzie McGuire, and I was in Hilary’s dressing room and her mom was there, and her mom was, I’m gonna say, the epitome of a stage mom, momager. She was intense,” Muniz began to explain on the podcast.
“I’ve actually never told this story, and I might get in trouble for it but I don’t care, I’m 40,” Muniz continued. “So her mom was like ‘Do you know what you’re doing this summer? What are you doing this summer?’ and I go ‘Oh I’m filming this movie where I’m playing, like, a junior James Bond. It’s called Agent Cody Banks,’ and she’s like ‘Is there a girl [part], that would be good for Hilary?’ and I was like ‘Yeah,’ I go ‘but I don’t know, you know?’ Meanwhile, I knew in my contract I had a say of who the girl was gonna be, you know? But I didn’t say that to her.”
Muniz then revealed that actress Kristin Kreuk from Smallville was a frontrunner for the role at the time, and he had already been picturing her as his co-star. Little did young Muniz know, this seemingly casual conversation with Duff’s mother would lead to a rift between him and Duff.
Muniz continued, “The next morning, I show up to the set, I go into her dressing room to hang out, and her mom is like ‘Guess what? We’re going to be spending the summer together!’ and I’m like ‘What do you mean?’ […] She was like ‘We’re going to be up in Vancouver together!’ and I’m like ‘Oh, what’s Hilary filming?’ like ‘Is she gonna be filming a movie up there too? That’s awesome! We’ll get to hang out, we’ll have dinners,’ you know what I mean? ‘No, she’s doing Cody Banks with you!’ and I looked at her and I went ‘No she’s not?’ and she’s like ‘No, yeah, yeah, she is […] They signed the contract last night.'”
Muniz then admits he was in complete disbelief that Duff’s mom orchestrated all of this overnight, when she hadn’t even known about the movie before he told her about it the day prior.
“So I call my agents and I’m like ‘hey, I’m just wondering…’ I wasn’t mad, it was just, like, shocking,” Muniz explained. “Because I have a say, I’m like ‘they didn’t ask me!’ But, supposedly, calls were made, and they knew that Hilary and I were really close and I was filming her show, so they just assumed it was fine. So, needless to say, I wasn’t thrilled about it.”
While he had nothing against Duff personally, he felt betrayed by her mother and the studio making a deal behind his back, which eventually led the two of them to drift apart.
“They came to Vancouver […] and I was very sad when Hilary’s mom would come on set,” he continued. “I’m being honest, you know what I mean? I’m old enough to where I realize I don’t mind people knowing the truth. And if I’ve told you, I’ve never talked to Hilary since the last day of filming. I have not said one word to her since then.”
Muniz then clarified that he regrets letting Duff’s mother impact his relationship with her.
“I look back at it now and I go ‘what a dumb [situation]’ […] I regret not just continuing to be friends with her, cuz we were friends, we had a great friendship for such a long time and I let her mom [get in the way]… like, it pissed me off,” Muniz said.
However, Muniz is open to repairing their relationship now as adults, if Duff is interested.
“I would love to catch up with her. I would love to even talk about that, cuz I’m sure she […] doesn’t know any of that happened,” Muniz concluded.
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