More than two decades later, Frankie Muniz<\/a> is declassifying a little known behind-the-scenes secret about Agent Cody Banks.<\/p>\n The 2x Golden Globe nominee recently recalled how his co-star Hilary Duff<\/a>\u2018s mother Susan was \u201cthe epitome of a stage mom\u201d as she interfered with the casting process to get her daughter the female lead role on the 2003 kids action movie after he appeared on her Disney Channel<\/a> show Lizzie McGuire<\/a>.<\/p>\n More from Deadline<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cHilary Duff was probably one of my first friends when I moved to LA to film Malcolm [in the Middle],\u201d he prefaced on The Joe Vulpis Podcast<\/a>. \u201cWe became really, really good friends. We had a really great relationship for a long time.\u201d<\/p>\n Noting he hadn\u2019t shared the story before, Muniz recounted, \u201cI don\u2019t know if I want to tell it, but maybe I will. It\u2019s been a long time. I was on the set of Lizzie McGuire, and I was in Hilary\u2019s dressing room and her mom was there.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cShe was intense. Hilary was so cool, we had an awesome relationship, but her mom was super intense,\u201d added Muniz, noting that his own mother was \u201cthe opposite\u201d and would \u201chide\u201d on set. \u201c[She] didn\u2019t want to be in the way.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve actually never told this story, and I might get in trouble for it, but I don\u2019t care. I\u2019m 40,\u201d said Muniz. \u201cSo her mom was like, \u2018Do you know what you\u2019re doing this summer? What are you doing this summer?\u2019 And I go, \u2018Oh, I\u2019m filming this movie where I\u2019m playing like a junior James Bond. It\u2019s called Agent Cody Banks.’\u201d<\/p>\n The actor recalled Susan asked him if there was \u201ca girl\u201d in the movie Hilary could play. While he acted noncommittal, Muniz \u201creally thought\u201d the role of Natalie Conners would go to Kristin Kreuk<\/a>, as his contract allowed him to choose who got the part.<\/p>\n The \u201cnext day,\u201d Muniz saw Susan in her daughter\u2019s dressing room again. \u201cAnd her mom\u2019s like, \u2018Guess what? We\u2019re going to be spending the summer together.’\u201d<\/p>\n Muniz assumed Hilary got a part on another movie in Vancouver. \u201c\u2018No, she\u2019s doing Cody Banks with you\u2026 They signed the contract last night,’\u201d Susan told him.<\/p>\n \u201cThe movie you knew nothing about yesterday?\u201d he remembered thinking. Muniz reached out to his agents, who told him \u201ccalls were made,\u201d and since he and Hilary were friends, \u201cThey just assumed it was fine.<\/p>\n \u201cNeedless to say, I wasn\u2019t thrilled about it. And not because I didn\u2019t want it to be Hilary,\u201d said Muniz. \u201cI don\u2019t know how much I want to say. I\u2019m trying to think about it because I\u2019ve already said way too much.\u201d<\/p>\n Muniz clarified that he enjoyed filming the movie, but \u201cwas very sad when Hilary\u2019s mom would come on set,\u201d adding: \u201cAnd if I told you I\u2019ve never talked to Hilary since the last day of filming. I\u2019ve not said one word to her since then. So that\u2019s the truth of that. No one knows about my Hilary Duff story.\u201d<\/p>\n Although Hilary and her mother were both \u201cprofessional,\u201d he explained there was an \u201cawkwardness\u201d on set.<\/p>\n \u201cI regret not just continuing to be friends with her because we had a great friendship for such a long time, and her mom\u2026 it pissed me off,\u201d added Muniz. \u201cI would love to catch up with her. I would love to even talk about that because I\u2019m sure she doesn\u2019t know any of that happened.\u201d<\/p>\n In Agent Cody Banks, Muniz starred as the titular high school student who is secretly a CIA agent, sent to befriend Natalie Conners (Duff), the daughter of a scientist who has invented killer nanobots that threaten to bring down the country.<\/p>\n Muniz reprised the role a year later for Agent Cody Banks 2: Destination London. Duff did not return for the sequel, with S Club 7\u2019s Hannah Spearrit playing his new female lead Emily Sommers.<\/p>\n Best of Deadline<\/strong><\/p>\n Sign up for Deadline’s Newsletter<\/a>. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook<\/a>, Twitter<\/a>, and Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source ca.news.yahoo.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" More than two decades later, Frankie Muniz is declassifying a little known behind-the-scenes secret about Agent Cody Banks. The 2x Golden Globe nominee recently recalled how his co-star Hilary Duff\u2018s mother Susan was \u201cthe epitome of a stage mom\u201d as she interfered with the casting process to get her daughter the female lead role on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2123496,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25173],"tags":[402742,402743,309932,318471,358256,22320,350482,403255],"class_list":["post-2123495","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artists","tag-agent-cody-banks","tag-cody-banks","tag-disney-channel","tag-everett-collection","tag-frankie-muniz","tag-hilary-duff","tag-lizzie-mcguire","tag-mother-susan"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Frankie-Muniz-Recalls-How-Hilary-Duffs-Mom-Hijacked-\u2018Agent-Cody.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2123495","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2123495"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2123495\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2123497,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2123495\/revisions\/2123497"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2123496"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2123495"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2123495"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2123495"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/span><\/div>\n
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