Frankie Muniz explained why he left Hollywood as a child actor despite having 'hundreds of offers'

Although every producer in Hollywood wanted a piece of him, Frankie Muniz left showbiz behind in 2008.

It was two years after Malcolm in the Middle came to an end and the child star had offers coming in left, right and centre - but he turned them all down.

He first entered the entertainment industry when he was just 12 years old and quickly gained notoriety in Hollywood after bagging the title role in the beloved US sitcom.

Muniz spent his teen years getting up to no good at the Playboy Mansion and raking in millions, making him the envy of adolescents around the world.

He was considered 'one of Hollywood's most bankable teens' at the height of his career, which made his decision to step away from the spotlight all the more baffling.

After Malcolm in the Middle ended its ridiculously successful six-year run, the New Jersey-native starred in Disney's Agent Cody Banks, Racing Stripes and My Dog Skip.

He snuck in a couple of guest appearances in Lizzie McGuire and Sabrina The Teenage Witch too, before hanging up his acting hat.

Frankie Muniz left acting to concentrate on his racing career, despite being inundated with acting offers (James Gilbert/Getty Images)

Instead, Muniz wanted to concentrate on forging his career as an open-wheel driver and he put his Hollywood plans on hold.

During an appearance on Steve-O's Wild Ride! podcast in 2021, the actor revealed how he came to this decision - and whether he lived to regret it.

The 39-year-old told the Jackass star and his co-hosts Scott Randolph and Paul Brisske: "When Malcolm ended, I got signed to BMW to race cars.

"I said to my agents and manager, 'Look this is what I want to do. I'm not trying to just do it as a hobby, I want to be the best I can be'.

"Like anything, if you want to do something the best, you've got to put in the time, you need to get in the work.

"So I didn't think that it was humanly possible to continue acting or continue in the entertainment business while doing the racing thing."

However, he explained that he does have some conflicting feelings about his chosen career path in hindsight.

The child star has some conflicting feelings about his chosen career path (Bob Riha, Jr./Getty Images)

"I'm so happy I went racing, I love every aspect of it and now it's becoming a part of my life again," Muniz said. "But I look back and I go, 'Did I make a mistake leaving at the height of my career?'

"Like when I had hundreds of offers...I could have kept going non-stop, and I said, 'No, I don't want to'. Now I look back and I go, 'I wonder what my life would have been if I stayed'."

But at the same time, Muniz wants to give his teenage self a pat on the back for making this tough choice.

He continued: "I look back and I go, 'Thank goodness I left!' Because I appreciate life in general more, I've started taking more in and I look back at the success I had and go, 'That was really cool'."

Steve-O reassured Muniz that he had 'made the healthier move', while admitting he wouldn't have been able to walk away from such epic levels of stardom.

"I'm so much of a happier person having stepped away," Muniz said. "When I moved here - as cheesy as it sounds - I started looking up for the first time, like looking at the clouds, the weather, the mountains.

"In LA, I just kind of kept my head down. Literally, I kept kept my head down all the time. I feel like this is where I'm supposed to be."

He explained he left for Phoenix, Arizona, 'right after Malcom ended and never looked back' - and apparently, this move was written in the stars all along anyway.

Muniz went on to explain he had visited New Orleans as a child and had his palm read, before being informed that in a past life he was a 'judge who defended the Native Americans in the southwest'.

The mystic then told him that's why he was 'drawn to the southwest'.

Muniz laughed: "At the time, I'd never been west of the Mississippi River - I'm from New Jersey, like the southwest?

"But the minute I came here, I was like this is where I'm supposed to be. It's weird. I don't fully believe in that stuff, but at the same time, I think he was onto something."

Whether it was destiny or Muniz's own decision, it seems like everything has worked out as it was meant to.