Frankie Muniz has admitted he has ‘never had a sip of alcohol’ in his life.
The 38-year-old is, of course, best known for playing the titular character in popular sitcom Malcolm in the Middle.
But despite growing up as a child actor, Muniz revealed he largely was outside of the Hollywood social scene.
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And nowadays he really is well outside of it as he is a professional race car driver, trading the big screen for the tracks.
Appearing on Mayim Bialik’s podcast Breakdown, Muniz was asked if he was ‘raised in a tradition’ that didn’t drink.
But he revealed: “Every family member in my family drinks. And that’s what they do for fun.”
The star, who says he ‘doesn’t have a reason’ why he doesn’t drink, was just 13 when he began playing Malcolm in the early noughties.
He added: “When I was 15, 16 years old, I felt like I was so old. I had experienced so much. And I had experienced a lot in my life in comparison to most 15- or 16-year-olds. but even though I was in the entertainment business, I never saw it, meaning the drug use, any of that stuff. I somehow stayed away.”
Muniz would avoid the young Hollywood party scene and instead ‘just went to set’ and did his ‘thing’.
“I grew up thinking the only people who smoked pot were criminals… on episodes of Cops,” he joked.
“Now I talk to my dad about it and my mom and they’re like, ‘We smoked pot every single day, you just didn’t know.’”
Now a dad himself, the actor turned race car driver said he was 18 when he was first around alcohol and decided he’d ‘made it so long without it’.
Muniz also spoke about the strong reactions others have when he’d turn down a drink and how this actually influenced him continuing to abstain.
“I was always kind of like, ‘It’s so weird that people have such a strong reaction to me not drinking,’” the star said.
“Like, who cares? I don’t care what you do. Why do you care so much about me?' I don’t know if I made a conscious decision, but it just stuck with me that I was never gonna drink or do anything.”
The actor experienced memory loss and suffered a ‘mini stroke’ over a decade ago.
He previously opened up about not being able to remember some of his time in Malcolm in the Middle and that he often can’t distinguish if his memories are ‘a dream or was reality’.
Topics: Celebrity, Food And Drink
Jess Battison