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Jane Kaczmarek speaks with Kyle Meredith about returning to Malcolm in the Middle after 20 years, joining the Duffer Brothers’ Netflix series The Boroughs, and what it feels like to have a full-circle career moment arrive when she least expected it. Reprising Lois in Malcolm in the Middle: Life’s Still Unfair on Hulu and playing Alfred Molina’s wife for the fifth time in The Boroughs, Kaczmarek looks at this new chapter as less of a comeback than a strange, funny, beautifully timed return to the places she started. Listen above or wherever you get your podcasts.
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“I am Lois,” Kaczmarek says — and honestly, who’s going to argue? The actor says she never played a moment on Malcolm that she wouldn’t have done herself under the same exhausted, broke, child-overrun circumstances, save maybe the time Lois shoved Reese’s face near broken glass. “I never would have put my child’s face in broken glass,” she laughs. “I would have put it in dog poop.” She also talks about Brian Cranston’s push to revive the show, joking that he was “sick and tired of killing all those people” and just wanted to be “Doofy Hal again.” She also reflects on Erik Per Sullivan opting out of the Malcolm revival, calling him “my hero” for knowing exactly who he is and saying, simply, “No, thanks. I’m good.”
(See more from theMalcolm revival cast in their recent Consequence interview.)
The conversation gets even looser when Kaczmarek digs into The Boroughs, aging on your own terms, marrying her high school sweetheart, and the eternal sensual powers of Led Zeppelin’s “Kashmir.” “You can create yourself as a 70-year-old woman the way you want to,” she says, before adding that this whole season of life has been a gift: “My kids are grown. His kids are grown. We’re having a great time.”
Listen to Jane Kaczmarek talk about Malcolm in the Middle: Life’s Still Unfair, The Boroughs, and more in the new episode above or by watching the video below. Keep up on all the latest episodes by followingKyle Meredith With…onyour favorite podcast platform; plus, check out all the series on theConsequence Podcast Network.