Frankie Muniz wasn't just a child star - he was one of the child stars of the early aughts. At 13, he became the brainy, wisecracking Malcolm in Malcolm in the Middle, a role that earned him Golden Globe and Emmy nods and turned him into one of the most recognizable faces on TV. By 15, he'd bought his first house. By 17, he was on red carpets and in L.A. clubs with Paris Hilton and the Hollywood It Crowd - though Muniz tells Us Weekly he was always the designated driver. "I felt like I'd lived 80 years already," he recalls, "because I just did so much." Then, at the height of his fame, he did something no one expected: he walked away. Ready to try something new after years of nonstop work in front of the camera ("Between ages 8 and 21, I maybe had 60 days off," he says), the actor traded scripts for speed, reinventing himself as a professional race car driver and later a touring musician. "I'm so lucky taking that step back happened, because it made me appreciate everything more," he admits. "It allowed me to do other things and realize a lot more about myself." Now, just months from turning 40, Muniz bears little resemblance to the dorky middle child we watched navigate the pitfalls of high school and contend with his chaotic family every Sunday night for seven years. He's a husband to model turned photographer Paige Muniz (who shot his Us Weekly cover story!), dad to 4-year-old son Mauz and a (hot!) full-time racer - while gearing up for a nostalgic return in Disney+'s long-awaited Malcolm in the Middle reboot. "I'm racing and I'm focused on it," he says, "but I hope Malcolm comes out and people want to see me as an actor again, because I would love to go back in that world." Catching up with Us from his Scottsdale, Arizona, home on one of his rare days off (he's only been there 22 days this year), Muniz opens up about the price of childhood fame, the freedom of starting over and why, after decades of transformation, he's finally ready to be Malcolm again. PAIGE MUNIZ So how did the reboot come about? I think I had put a Tweet out in 2015 [saying], "It would be so cool to see where Malcolm and his family are." I couldn't believe the response and how [many people] went crazy for that. I called [show creator] Linwood Boomer, and he was like, "No, I like how it ended." Bryan Cranston [who played Malcolm's dad, Hal] and I talked about it, and he took the lead in making it happen. It took 10 years. Did you have any hesitation about signing on? People go, "You don't want to get pigeonholed [as] one character," but I'm like, "Wherever I go in the world, people know Malcolm, and they love the show and that family." I was in Mexico two months ago, and literally, people were crying to me [over] how it changed their family dynamic. The timing wasn't perfect because I'm now a full-time NASCAR driver, but I wasn't going to say no because of that. 'Malcolm in the Middle' Cast: Where Are They Now? What was it like doing it at this time in your life? Having stepped away from Hollywood a bit to focus on other things and get the opportunity to jump back into it in a big way was awesome. At times, you take things for granted... now I try to put more effort into everything. Why do you think people loved the show so much? When [it] came out, everyone was like, "Oh, it's this crazy, dysfunctional family, and they fight and bicker..." but everybody comes up to me and goes, "That's literally my family." It felt more genuine and honest and relatable than most TV families. And you got more substance than you did with previous shows with the laugh track or [where] every 20 seconds, there's got to be a joke. Were Bryan and Jane Kaczmarek [who played mom Lois] parental figures for you in real life? I definitely spent more time with them than I did with my family during those years. Especially Bryan. Obviously, he's gone on to do so many huge things, but he's always reached out and supported whatever crazy adventure I was on. When I was doing Dancing With the Stars [in 2017], he came on. It's cool to see, especially in Hollywood, where it's a world of people who are just so focused on themselves. Justin Berfield, Frankie Muniz Everett Collection What was it like having that level of success as a teen? My mom and I would go [to] five or six auditions a day in New York City and [then] go where they filmed David Letterman and stand in the crowd and watch the celebrities get out of their car. Or we'd go to TRL and stand in Times Square, and whichever celeb was there would come to the window and wave. It went from [being] in the crowd screaming for Hanson to three months later, I was in the window waving down to the crowd. It's a weird thing to happen. [It felt like] an out-of-body experience. At the height of your fame, did it feel like you had it all - money, cars, girls? A lot of it was during the awkward years of puberty and growing up and trying to figure out what I wanted. I'm thrilled that [it happened] prior to social media. I had all