Fox
Malcolm in the Middle actor Justin Berfield has told members of the press to leave his former co-star Erik Per Sullivan alone, because “he wants to stay out of the business.”
The Malcolm in the Middle revival – subtitled ‘Life’s Still Unfair’ – was a hit with critics and audiences alike when it debuted earlier this month, in spite of the fact that one of the original actors was missing from the ensemble.
Erik Per Sullivan played Malcolm’s young brother Dewey in the original series, but declined to return for the new episodes, in favor of leaving showbiz behind, and continuing his studies at Harvard University.
He was replaced by Caleb Ellsworth-Clark in the show, but that hasn’t stopped photographers from trying to get shots of Sullivan, which has enraged Berfield.
Malcolm in the Middle star says he feels bad for Erik Per Sullivan
Jane Kaczmarek – who played Sullivan’s mother in the original series – recently told The Guardian that producers “offered him buckets of money to come back, and he just said, ‘No thank you.’”
Berfield backs that claim up on the Howie Mandel podcast, stating: “I know they asked him a whole bunch. They asked him like four or five times, and every time he was like, ‘No.’”
But he’s also unhappy with the way Sullivan has been treated after making that decision, saying: “He’s a good guy, and I love Eric. I actually feel bad because he wants to stay out of the business and I’ve been seeing paparazzi shots of him, and I’m like, ‘just leave Eric alone.’
Berfield adds: “He didn’t want to come back to the show. No hard feelings.”
To see how Ellsworth-Clark fares in the role of Dewey – or to catch a glimpse at that Finn Wolfhard cameo – you can check out all four episodes of the Malcolm in the Middle revival on Hulu in the US, and Disney+ elsewhere.
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