Let's All Stop Making The 'Malcolm In The Middle' Cast Dish About Dewey
Let's All Stop Making The 'Malcolm In The Middle' Cast Dish About Dewey
Keegan KellyThu, April 9, 2026 at 10:17 PM UTC
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There’s a new Dewey in town, and nobody is ready to be normal about it.
The Malcolm in the Middle miniseries revival Malcolm in the Middle: Life's Still Unfair releases tomorrow, but one familiar face will be missing from the original cast. The role of Dewey, which was previously played by former child actor and current adult academic Erik Per Sullivan, will now be performed by Caleb Ellsworth-Clark while the rest of the ensemble fields endless questions about Sullivan’s whereabouts.
Recasts happen in Hollywood all the time – actors have scheduling conflicts, some behind-the-scenes friction causes an unceremonious exit, someone wins a major industry award and is suddenly too famous to remember their roots – but Sullivan’s case is unique in that he didn’t just quit Malcolm in the Middle; he quit acting entirely.
According to Bryan Cranston, Jane Kaczmarek, Justin Berfield and everyone else from the Malcolm in the Middle: Life’s Still Unfair set who has stepped in front of a microphone in the last few months, Sullivan turned down the offer to return to the series in order to continue his pursuit of a master's degree at Harvard University. The scholar's absence has been a constant topic of conversation on the press tour, and the tabloids are even following Sullivan to the supermarket now.
There hasn't been this much media obsession over a celebrity-turned-student since the gossip rags went after Harry Potter.
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Look, we get it, for the average person who grew up going to school instead of set, the allure of fame and fortune is so strong that it's hard to understand why Sullivan turned down “buckets of money” to take a study break and join what is arguably the most anticipated sitcom revival in reboot history.
But Sullivan has already been a massive TV star, thanks to the original Malcolm in the Middle. Presumably, he made a pretty penny for the work he put in as a pre-teen, and it's enough to get him through graduate school. Sullivan knows what fame and fortune feel like, and it's clearly not for him, just like it's not for most people who want to buy Drano without paparazzi poking their heads in the shopping cart.
Plus, when you look at the average life and career of a grown-up child star, choosing Harvard over Hulu is just about the most responsible decision we've ever seen a show kid make. Sure, Malcolm in the Middle: Life's Still Unfair would have been a great way for Sullivan to make a quick buck, but without looking at a single statistic, I'd wager that Harvard alumni generally have better life outcomes than child stars who try to stretch out their fame as far as it will take them.
Sullivan's not coming back. The rest of the Malcolm in the Middle cast has weighed in on it, and they're proud of his decision. No matter what the fame-obsessed media tries to imply, bowing out of the acting racket doesn't make anyone a loser – but following a grad student to the grocery store definitely does.
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Source: “AOL Entertainment”
