Waymo’s Driven with Andrew Freund: S3 Episode 5 with Frankie Muniz

When you're going back to do a show that you wrapped a long time ago, do you have to go back and watch the original to see like exactly who that guy was? >> I I mean, I watched a a little bit of it before we went back filming. >> But no, I I think Malcolm is definitely embedded in me 100. And I wasn't sure of that. Like, I wasn't like, "Oh, I've got it." But the minute we got on set in this first scene that we filmed, I was like, "Oh, no. I got this. This is this is easy." >> Okay. Welcome to Driven Season 3, the interview series that's not about the destination, but about the journey getting there. >> All right. What are your initial thoughts? What are your initial thoughts on the pull out? >> It it really was like it was it was decisive and it just it went for it. No hesitation. >> Do you trust it more than a human driver? >> I do actually. Even though I've never done this, I feel like I I trust this more than most people cuz people are distracted. They're trying to check their, you know, social media while they're driving. >> Yeah. As a professional driver, Frank, this is what you do for a living. >> Yeah. >> Do you feel the need for speed >> on the race car? Yes. I I I think most race car drivers I talked to too like don't drive aggressively or fast on the street. Like there's just >> there's no there's no speed. There's nothing that you can do on the road like on the street that will match what we do every weekend in the race car. But no, I think I drive fairly >> slow. >> What's your wind down? >> You're like going 200 miles an hour. Like >> there's no wind down. Like you I I don't know. You immediately take that energy and place it towards the next thing. >> Okay. Is that part of the rush though? Is that why you keep doing it because you are fighting for your life? >> Yeah. Yes. I mean, you know, when you have a good day, like there's nothing more satisfying because it's not subjective. It's not like, you know, someone's opinion of a role. I played or a movie I did or some people like it, some people hate it, you know, like it's right there in black and white if you were the best or not. You know what I mean? And >> that's true. >> It's It's pretty cool. >> Could you have ever imagined back in 2000 when you first started this that we would be here in 2026 and you would be doing this 26 years later? >> Oh, never. Never. >> Yeah, I look different. But hey, everything about me is different. I have a girlfriend and the best thing in the whole world, my daughter, Leah. >> Dad, quit it. My life is fantastic now. All I have to do is stay completely away from my family. So, you really don't know every step of the way. Like, you make the pilot, you're excited, it gets picked up, you're thrilled, you hope people watch it. The first couple episodes air, it was a success. Are they going to keep watching? You know, so to get to do seven years and hearing it all around the world, people coming up to me telling me, you know, how it brought their families closer together or it got them out of a a depression or just the impact the show had. Like, that's pretty cool to be a part of. repeat really loved it. >> I feel like you know in the first uh iteration it was like the it's a chaos but it's root rooted in love. >> Yes. >> Would you say that that's similar to what we're going to see in the new one? >> Yeah. You know, I I remember in the beginning everybody like all the press and everything that was writing about the show was like, "Oh, it's such this crazy dysfunctional family." But what I found is so many people I think they liked it is it was actually really relatable, right? They were like, "No, that's my family. That's my mom." You know, that's the relationship I have. You know, I feel like the world's about to get me. You know what I mean? >> And um >> literally my family >> like, you know, so I I think people >> really enjoy that about it. And when you really look at it, like they really cared about each other. They loved each other. The the family, they stood up for each other. Yeah. >> One of the other things I want to ask you is in the in the new season, the first episode, >> we see a lot of Cranston. There is like I mean >> a naked y >> there's a lot of Cranston, you know, and I've been fortunate to interview Brian many times. I have never seen Brian naked on screen before. Were you there that day? I love it. But but that scene is a exact replica of the first scene of the first episode >> when she he's getting she >> she's getting shaved in the in the show. >> So, and uh the shirt that Kelly, the the the new uh Malcolm sibling uh is wearing is actually the same exact shirt I wore in the pilot. Like it was a handme-down. So, there's a lot of fun Easter eggs like that that we we kind of put in. So like the true the true Malcolm fans might catch. >> Um there's a lot of like kind of throwback stuff that I I'm curious if if people catch a lot of it. >> Did you have one like purchase as a child that you were just like I bought a I don't know fast car when you were 12 or >> I had a lot of those. >> You did? Okay. >> Yeah. Um I had a I would say a little bit of a car buying problem. You know what I I was always into cars and um I didn't really know cuz I had a business manager at the time and I knew I was making a lot of money if you know what I mean but like I didn't know how much money I had or what was but I knew anytime I like wrote a check at a car dealership like it went through I got the car >> right >> the credit card never declined you know. >> Okay so what what did we buy? Did you buy any supercars? >> I mean the first my first car I ever bought was the actual the Jetta that was in the movie The Fast and Furious. Like the actual movie car. I feel like I remember seeing this in the news. You made news doing right. >> I did. I did. >> Yeah. Okay. >> Car buying was bad for me. Like I if I could do it back again, I probably would have bought, you know, maybe 50 plus cars less than I did. >> I mean, listen, Jay Leno has a lot of cars. >> He does, but he's a collector. It's different, right? His like the cars he buys appreciate. The ones I I drive off a lot like lose money the next day. >> Okay, that's fair. Yeah. >> Any stigmas of child actors that you would like to dispel right now that people often think of that aren't necessarily true? >> What do you I don't know. Name stuff. >> I don't know. Like, you know, were were you like party boy central? >> No. I mean, I I definitely went to like my fair share of like Hollywood parties, right? I went to I remember I was 19 or whatever and I used to go into all the clubs and stuff, but like I didn't drink, so like I wasn't trouble. Um >> and there were no cameras back then. >> There was no cameras. I was friends with a lot of younger act like child actors and I saw stuff that is the is what you expect to see. But uh no it just kind of became my thing that like I just didn't want to partake in in any of that. I don't know. I don't I don't know why. I don't have a reason. Um but like yeah. No I I I I was in that like Paris Hilton you know Lindsay Lohan gang for a while and I don't know how because like I so didn't fit that. >> What goes on? Wait. Okay. Hold on. Hold on. Hold on. What goes on in that gang? Like what do you guys what do they talk about back then? >> You know, I remember we would go out and every night, not every night, but most nights we would go to my house after like the not the afterparty, but like it'd be like seven or eight of us, okay? >> And I was on an episode I did Ellen Degenerous one time, the Ellen show, and I said that I loved kid cuisine TV dinners and she gave me like a year supply of kid. So like everyone came to my house and I was making kid cuisines for like Paris and Lindsay. Like that was I was like I think about it now and I'm like my life was pretty weird. >> Yeah. But like what a time to be alive. It was pretty cool. >> I mean >> I mean a great time to be alive.