Alexa PenaVega Says Her Kids 'Don't Like' Spy Kids , Think She 'Should Have Been Lavagirl'

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Alexa PenaVega's kids aren't as big a fan of her earlier work as others, it seems.

The former child star, 34, admitted that her three children don't love her 2001 breakout film Spy Kids during an interview with E! News, explaining that they prefer another Robert Rodriguez-helmed family adventure movie.

"Everybody thinks I was Lavagirl. I was not Lavagirl, but my kids only watch Sharkboy and Lavagirl," PenaVega said. "They don't like Spy Kids."

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She played Carmen Cortez, who goes on an adventure with her brother Juni (Daryl Sabara) to save their parents (Antonio Banderas and Carla Gugino), after finding out mom and dad are secretly spies. PenaVega returned to the role for Spy Kids 2: The Island of Lost Dreams (2002) and Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over (2003).

Rodriguez followed up the franchise's success with the 2005 movie The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl, starring Taylor Lautner and Taylor Dooley as the titular superheroes. Dooley reprised the role in Rodriguez's 2020 Netflix film We Can Be Heroes, although Lautner was unavailable to play Sharkboy again.

Alexa and Carlos PenaVega with sons Kingston (left) and Ocean.

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Alexa's husband Carlos PenaVega, with whom she shares sons Ocean King, 5, Kingston James, 3, and 17-month-old daughter Rio Rey, said they have to tell the kids, "But that's not Mommy."

"Kingston keeps telling me that I should have been Lavagirl. I love Taylor, so I literally text her that all the time. I'm like, 'Girl, my kids like you better than they like me, and I don't know what to do about it!'" Alexa added.

The Machete Kills actress also revealed that she recently caught up with Sabara, 30, who welcomed his first child, son Riley Trainor, 20 months, with wife Meghan Trainor last February.

Columbia/Sony/Kobal/Shutterstock Taylor Dooley, Taylor Lautner

"We saw my brother today, Daryl," Alexa said. "We were with him, and now he has a baby. So maybe his baby will like Spy Kids."

Alexa previously told PEOPLE that she and the Spy Kids cast and crew remain "a small little family," Alexa says, adding that Sabara "is my lifelong brother" in the 2020 interview.

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"When we were filming those movies, we really were like brother and sister," Alexa added. "And we would fight so much, just like brother and sister. And now that we're older, we get along super well. There's so much love. He'll be my bro-bro forever."

After releasing the fourth installment Spy Kids: All the Time in the World (starring Jessica Alba, Joel McHale and Rowan Blanchard) in 2011, Rodriguez, 54, is rebooting the franchise with an upcoming film starring Gina Rodriguez and Zachary Levi.