Erik Per Sullivan Rejects Big Bucks for Reunion

The cast of Malcolm in the Middle have – with the exception of one key cast member. 

Erik Per Sullivan, who played the family's youngest son Dewey in the sitcom, turned down an incredibly lucrative offer to be part of the four-episode series.

Sullivan, now 34, is busy studying literature at Harvard and is too focused on his education to return to Hollywood.

Speaking to The Guardian, Jane Kaczmarek, who plays family matriarch Lois, said that Sullivan is 'studying Dickens and is an incredible student. They offered him buckets of money to come back, and he just said, "No thank you."'

He has since been replaced by actor Caleb Ellsworth-Clark, who is portraying Dewey in the Disney+ series, Malcolm in the Middle: Life’s Still Unfair.

Sullivan currently has no public social media accounts and hasn't appeared on screen since taking a small part in the 2010 thriller Twelve.

It comes after Malcolm in the Middle star Justin Berfield resurfaced after spending years out of the spotlight.

Berfield portrayed Malcolm's older brother Reese in the hit sitcom, but left the acting world after the series ended in 2006.

Now 40, the actor recently broke his silence in his first interview in almost 20 years and revealed why he stepped away from Hollywood stardom.

'I fully just stopped acting,' he told The Joe Vulpis Podcast, adding that he started working behind the scenes as a writer and producer.

'I just never reached that level where I was that in demand, I guess,' he continued.

'I had no intention of ever becoming like Leonardo DiCaprio. Like, that guy, he's huge. He starred in TV, did comedy, and then he exploded but that was never my intention as an actor.' 

Berfield described himself as 'low key' and admitted that he's spent the last several years as a stay-at-home dad to his two children, whom he shares with wife Liza Almeida.

When asked why he hasn't done interviews in almost two decades, Berfield admitted that it was because he never had any projects to promote.