Malcolm in the Middle’s Erik Per Sullivan Turned Down “Buckets of Money” for Revival Return

Erik Per Sullivan wasn’t interested in TV getting in the middle of his studies.

The Malcolm in the Middle alum’s onscreen mother Jane Kaczmarek revealed that he was content to continue his normal life instead of joining his former costars in the revival Life’s Still Unfair.

“He’s studying [Charles] Dickens and is an incredible student,” she told The Guardian in a story published April 3, “they offered him buckets of money to come back, and he just said: ‘No thank you.’”

Sullivan, who played second-youngest brother Dewey in the original series, is the only original cast member not returning for the revival. He was replaced by Caleb Ellsworth-Clark in the four-episode miniseries, which premieres on April 10.

Indeed, the former actor, 34, focused on his education in the years after Malcolm in the Middle ended in 2006, with this last acting credit being the 2010 thriller Twelve. After getting his undergraduate degree at the University of Southern California, he is now a graduate student at Harvard University studying Victorian literature.