Frankie Muniz is familiar with surreal. After all, he was a teen idol.
“I mean, really, my whole life, when I think back [on] it, I did so manyincredible things at a young age. People think, they always go, like, ‘Oh, areyou sad that you didn’t get to go to prom?'” Muniz, now 36, tells YahooEntertainment. “I was at the Emmys and the Golden Globes and traveled allaround the world and hanging out at the Playboy Mansion. Almost to the pointwhere I look back, and I go, ‘Was that real?'”
So, no, he wasn’t broken up about having missed the prom. He was the star of ahit TV show, Malcolm in the Middle by the time he was 14. In his laterteens, Muniz also starred in movies such as Agent Cody Banks with HilaryDuff — he was Banks — and Big Fat Liar alongside Amanda Bynes.
“I remember the first time that I got recognized. Malcolm hadn’t evenpremiered yet, but all the billboards were all over New York City,” Munizsays. That’s where my family lived, and I was taking the subway, and all thesepeople were staring at me… I didn’t understand that, like, maybe they had seenpreviews or whatever. And people started coming up to me before the show evenpremiered, ‘You’re going to be on that show.’ And it was honestly, like, themost incredible feeling ever.”
Frankie Muniz appears in a promotional photo for Malcolm in the Middle.(Photo: Michael Lavine/Fox Network/Courtesy Everett Collection)
Muniz ended up starring in seven seasons of Malcolm and he has continued toact since it ended in 2006, appearing in shows, such as Last Man Standing ,Harley Quinn and The Rookie as well as movies, including Extreme Movie_and _Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story. He’s also ventured into professionalrace car driving, and he plans to drive full-time for NASCAR next year.
But first, he tried out reality TV, by joining the cast of the upcoming seasonof The Surreal Life. The buzzy show originally aired for six seasons, from2003 to 2006, and it spawned countless spinoffs, from My Fair Brady to_Strange Love_ starring former cast members Flavor Flav and Brigitte Nielsen,and all its incarnations, including Flavor of Love and Rock of Love.
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Muniz was cautious, because he’d seen the original, drama-filled series, buthe was told that the new iteration is more of “a positive, funny, soul-searching type show.” And he thought it would be a challenge.
“I was a little afraid of [the craziness of the original]and I didn’t knowwhat to expect in the sense of who your roommates are gonna be, because theydon’t tell you before you head to the house,” he says. “But there wassomething about putting myself out of my comfort zone, you know, to kind ofjust have life experiences that I wouldn’t normally put myself in.”
Muniz and the rest of the cast — August Alsina, the musician who had an> “entanglement” with Jada Pinkett Smith; singer and reality TV star Tamar> Braxton; Living Single actress and comedian Kim Coles; porn star Stormy> Daniels, who’s long alleged an affair with Donald Trump; makeup artist and> YouTuber Manny MUA; former WWE star CJ Perry (aka Lana); and former NBA star> Dennis Rodman, who really needs no description — filmed the revamped version> of the show last year.
“I’m so happy that I did [it], because I feel like I learned a lot aboutmyself. I learned a lot about the other people in the house that I wouldn’thave expected. And I got to do some pretty cool stuff,” Muniz says. “Now,there was definitely drama and all that, that’s just part of putting eight bigpersonalities together in a house in Mexico City. But it was both anincredible, incredible experience and also one of the craziest things I’veever done, for sure.”
To that point, in the trailer, Muniz says, “We’ve all seen Dennis Rodman’sdong.”
One of the early challenges for the actor was that he didn’t know how he’dhandle being a roommate, because he’d never been one.
“I tried to be easy going,” he says. “There was enough drama for me to not tryto throw more drama into the fire… At the same time, I didn’t back down when Ineeded to defend myself. And there definitely were times when I needed to. Weall did. But I think the cool thing about the show is every conflict reallywas resolved.”
And those conflicts came up early.
“It was, I’ll say, immediately, a little bit drama-filled with the roommatesituation, but me, Kim Coles and Manny MUA, we, for some reason, had thisbond. Instant bond,” Muniz reveals. “And I’m so happy that I had them throughthis experience, because we kinda really kept ourselves — our room, at least —sane. So when things were great, it was great. When things were bad, we hadeach other. That was a great thing. We’re still friends to this day, forsure.”
The Surreal Life premieres with two back-to-back episodes Monday, Oct.24 at 9 pm on VH1.