Frankie Muniz wants fans to know the truth: his memory isn’t perfect, but it’s not nearly as dire as headlines have suggested.
The Malcolm in the Middle star, who first sparked concern back in 2017 after admitting he remembered little about filming the sitcom, recently clarified the situation.
“The story of that was taken out of context,” Muniz explained on Michael Rosenbaum’s Inside of You podcast.
“I have no memory issues, I have a bad memory. All these crazy stories have come out where people are like, ‘You don’t even know your [own] wife.’ I just have a bad memory.”
Muniz pointed to the whirlwind of his early career as a possible reason for his forgetfulness.
Acting since age eight, he described constantly shifting between characters and emotions, then moving on once the cameras stopped rolling.
“You never think about it again,” he said.
That habit, combined with a hectic life of travel and performance, may explain why he doesn’t retain much from his sitcom years.
Even about his current career as a professional race car driver, he joked, “I’ll do a race with 300 laps… I remember, like, two laps of the race that I did the night before.”
Muniz acknowledged he’s had nine concussions and several mini-strokes, but stressed that these haven’t left him with amnesia.
“I do think I have a bad memory, but it’s not like I have amnesia,” he said, adding with a laugh, “That doesn’t help. But, you know.”
Despite the hazy recollections, Muniz is back with his TV family for Malcolm in the Middle: Life’s Still Unfair, a four-episode Disney+ revival.
Bryan Cranston, Jane Kaczmarek, Christopher Masterson, and Justin Berfield are all returning, with Caleb Ellsworth-Clark stepping in as Dewey.
And it turns out Muniz isn’t alone in his memory lapses.
During a cast reunion, even Cranston and Kaczmarek struggled to recall old scenes.
“Everybody was like, ‘No way!’” Muniz laughed.
