Matthew Lillard has enjoyed an illustrious career across our screens that has so far spanned more than three decades. Whether you know him as Stu Macher from Scream or as Shaggy in the live-action Scooby-Doo franchise, you’ve no doubt seen the Michigan native commanding any scene he turns his mind to with his dramatic and often comedic performances.
After breaking into the world of show business as a presenter on SK8-TV in 1990, Lillard tested his acting chops just a year later with a role in Ghoulies III: Ghoulies Go to College. His breakout performance came in 1994 when he appeared in John Waters’ Serial Mom as Chip Sutphin.
Starring alongside The Pope of Trash himself, Kathleen Turner, and Justin Whalin, Lillard was propelled to stardom, landing roles in Mad Love, Hackers, and Tarantella. Wes Craven’s landmark slasher revival flick, Scream, put Lillard on the map for genre fans as he portrayed one of the first Ghostface killers and perfected his signature whacky performance style. Since then, he has gone on to shock and scare horror fans in Thirteen Ghosts, Messages Deleted, The Curve, and most recently, the hit video game Five Nights At Freddy’s adaptation.
With more than 160 acting credits under his belt, Lillard has certainly made his mark on the world of cinema and TV – even turning his hand to directing with the short film Come Home Soon in 2009 and his feature debut in 2012 with Fat Kid Rules the World. His contributions to cinema have not gone unnoticed, with the actor receiving a Screen Actor’s Guild nomination, scooping both a Kids and Teen Choice Award, and worming his way into the world’s heart as an all-around lovable guy.
Genre fans are sure to be delighted he is set to star in the upcoming FNAF sequel as well as an adaptation of Stephen King’s novel The Life Of Chuck. As the reign of Lillard continues, FANGORIA takes a look back at his best movies and most iconic roles to date.
Early Breakthroughs
Lillard and Waters is a match made in heaven. Both are comedic geniuses with a penchant for all things maniacal, and their wondrous minds came together in 1994 for Serial Mom. A staple Mother’s Day viewing for 30 years, the pitch-black comedy follows housewife Beverly Sutphin (Turner), who seems to have it all – a beautiful suburban home, a successful husband (Sam Waterston), and her two wonderful children, Chip and Misty (Lillard and Ricki Lake).
However, she is secretly a serial killer and satisfies her insatiable taste for murder by enacting vengeance on those who slight her family. Lillard’s performance as Chip was a true standout in the film, which is really saying something considering he was starring alongside Turner, who had wowed audiences in Romancing the Stone, Body Heat, and The Jewel of The Nile.
At just 24, Lillard’s career was taking off, and it landed him a role in Iain Softley’s crime thriller Hackers the following year. Acting alongside Jonny Lee Miller and Angelina Jolie, Hackers cemented Lillard’s status as an actor on the rise.
He appeared in the film as Emmanuel’ Cereal Killer’ Goldstein, a member of a group of hackers Dade (Miller) joins seven years after he was banned from getting behind a computer screen for crashing over 1,000 computer systems and causing a drop in the New York Stock Exchange. The film became a cult classic and last year, Lillard suggested that a sequel to the cyberpunk hit may be in the works. During a Scream reunion panel at Emerald City Comic Con 2023, he shared (per PopVerse) “They’re talking about Hackers 2″ when asked by an audience member about the possibility.
Iconic Teen Roles
Scream not only breathed new life into the slasher genre – which has long been considered dead in the water after an inundation of titles aiming to emulate the likes of Halloween and The Texas Chain Saw Massacre – it also propelled Lillard to new heights as a genre icon. Lillard appeared in the film as Stu Macher, Billy Loomis’ (Skeet Ulrich) best friend and part of the friendship group, including leading lady Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell). The lovable yet erratic film fan donned the Ghostface mask part-time alongside Loomis to carry out the brutal killings across Woodsboro, culminating in a bloody showdown between the duo against Sidney and kick-ass news anchor Gale Weathers (Courtney Cox).
Speaking to Forbes in 2021, Lillard and Ulrich explored the importance of Scream as it turned 25, with Lillard revealing the film “represents the start” of his career and holds a special place in his heart. He continued: “So much of your life as an actor is transactional. Whenever you do a movie, good or bad, there’s a big part of you that holds on to that memory because you created it. Whether the projects land or not, it has nothing to do with you or your love for the film.
With something like Scream that means something to you is a whole other thing. I’ve done plenty of movies that don’t necessarily have the same kind of emotional impact this movie had on my life. It’s humbling that it’s still successful, but it’s rewarding that we’re still friends, and that moment for all of us was unique in our lives. It wasn’t just another moment.”
The film introduced Lillard to a wider audience than his previous roles had, and this was furthered in 1999 when he starred alongside Freddie Prinze Jr. for the first time in She’s All That. In a complete switch of character types, Lillard went from the goofball class clown turned serial killer to the reality TV star who gets the girl (yes, really) as Brock Hudson, the new boyfriend of Taylor Vaughn (Jodi Lyn O’Keefe) after she cheats on our leading man Zack Siler (Prinze Jr).
Lillard is simply louder than life in the role, showcasing his impressive versatility as an actor and his arguably more impressive dance moves in the infamous Give It To Me Baby dance sequence, which leaves Taylor red-faced and fans screaming for more. Not satisfied with just being a horror icon, Lillard was now legendary in the rom-com world (yes, really really) with his obnoxious character weirdly beloved by the fandom thanks in part to the actor’s no-holds-barred depiction of the wannabe movie star.
Animated Adventures
Where is there to go when you’ve conquered the worlds of crime thriller, horror, and romance? Animation, of course. Lillard made his voice acting debut in 2010 when he took over for Casey Kasem as lovable hippie Norville “Shaggy” Rogers in the animated feature Scooby-Doo Abracadabra-Doo, appearing in three series as well as every animated film since he claimed the role, not to mention video game spin-offs.
Before that, however, Lillard was cast in 2002’s (quite frankly, underrated) live-action Scooby-Doo film, delivering a performance that’s not only good – it’s the best of the whole film as he reunites with Prinze Jr. as Fred as well as Sarah Michelle Gellar and Linda Cardellini as Daphne and Velma respectively.
He donned the green shirt and brown pants yet again in Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed, where he simply became Shaggy (seriously, sometimes I wonder where the character ends and the actor begins he is so associated with the role). His performance was immortalized in the most coveted of fashions, in meme form, when the internet latched onto the idea of Shaggy being the most powerful being of all time, which, of course, Lillard loved.
He told Vice in 2019: “I have no comment about his origins because obviously, that would literally blow your mind, and I don’t want to hurt you because you seem like a nice guy. But the wealth of his power is borne from the ancient gods of fast food and pickles.”
Transition to Dramatic Roles
After the mayhem of Mystery Incorporated, Lillard moved into more dramatic roles with an appearance in the Oscar-winning film The Descendants in 2011. Based on the 2007 novel of the same name, it follows George Clooney in the lead role as Matt King, a Hawaiian native who struggles in the aftermath of his wife Elizabeth’s (Shailene Woodley) life-changing boating accident and pressure from his family to sell their enormous land trust, of which he is the sole trustee.
Lillard appears as Brian Speer, a man whom King discovers was having an affair with Elizabeth, leading to an emotional confrontation between the pair as he is forced to come clean to the grieving man who had his world rocked. The scene is permeated with light jokes delivered expertly by the Scooby-Doo star, who easily balanced the tension and comic relief and earned every piece of the critical acclaim he received.
It became an instant classic, gracing many top films of 2011 lists before receiving five Oscar nominations at the 84th Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor for Clooney. The Descendents walked away with the Best Adapted Screenplay gong as well as two Golden Globe Awards for Best Picture—Drama and Best Actor—Drama for Clooney.
Collaborations and Ensemble Casts
Lillard can still shine as part of an ensemble cast, as his role in the FX crime drama The Bridge is a testament to. Beginning in 2013, the show – which spanned only two seasons before the network canceled it – is an American retelling of the Danish-Swedish series Bron/Broen in which a murdered body on a bridge between El Paso and Juárez, brings together two teams of detectives to solve the crime.
Lillard appears in both series as Daniel Fyre, a brash El Paso Times detective whose glittering career has amounted to nothing due to his substance abuse issues. Starring alongside the likes of Diane Kruger, Demián Bichir, and Ted Levine, Lillard carves himself out a memorable slot in the rollercoaster narrative by doing what he had perfected at this point in his career – injecting humor into the darkest of situations.Â
Speaking about this talent to Cinemovie.tv in an interview about The Bridge, he said: “I think what I bring is energy and, yes, I generally find opportunities to be funny in really high stakes; Scream is a great example of that. When you’re running for your life, and you’re at the end of your rope and the stakes are really high, to be able to make people laugh in that little sweet spot; I like doing that. I think that it’s a combination. I think that the writers and Elwood have found a great way to use me in the show. I think that Emily and I do a lot of solving the case, but on top of it, we can add a little levity to a world that’s so ripe with drama. Yes, I think it’s a combination of both. I think that they lean into me for that, and I tend to find it on the day.”
He replicated this magic in 2018 when he joined Good Girls, starring opposite leading lady Christina Hendricks in a role that many cite as the reason they tuned into the show, and I can’t help but agree. The NBC comedy crime drama, which ran until 2021, is best described as “Breaking Bad lite,” a slightly less dark narrative that follows the lives of three mothers – Beth Boland (Christina Hendricks), Ruby Hill (Retta), and Annie Marks (Mae Whitman) – who plan a heist to get themselves out of money trouble, but soon find themselves sucked into a criminal underworld.
Lillard starred as Beth’s sleazy husband, Dean Boland, whose affair is uncovered by Beth as season one kicks off. He spends the remaining episodes redeeming himself in a complex character arc that the actor masterfully explores. His chemistry with Hendricks was palpable, and a huge draw to the show – in fact, the relationships between every character were intensely believable and helped to ground the wildly unbelievable narrative in some sort of realism.
Good Girls was a real gem of a show, so its cancellation in 2021 was met with devastation by fans, but they weren’t the only ones gutted to say goodbye to the gals. “That job to me was a dream. I was gonna direct next season. We were shooting in L.A., obviously, I have three kids and being in L.A. is such a gift,” Lillard told Us.
“I love the creators. I love playing a character that’s super flawed and has a chance to come back and sort of redeem himself over the generations of the show over the seasons of the show. So for me, it was heartbreaking. And I think [it was] for everyone, I think for all the women involved. Strong women led by a strong female producer, and it just fell between the cracks of Hollywood business. And it was really a bummer.”
Behind the Camera
Fresh from his time on The Descendants and four years after helming short film Come Home Soon, the actor directed his first feature-length film in 2012, Fat Kid Rules the World, in which he also starred as the Psychiatrist. Based on the book of the same name by K. L. Going, it follows high school dropout Curt MacCrae (Matt O’Leary) after he saves the life of suicidal misfit Troy Billings (Jacob Wysocki) with the duo going on to form a punk rock band, Rage/Tectonic.Â
Speaking to The Wrap, Lillard shared how the novel caught his attention: “The book’s fantastic, and I just felt like the story itself was the story of how every kid in America feels in high school. For me, I found when I was 13 years old that acting was the one thing I was good at, the one thing I was accepted at, and it changed my life.” The film was met with an overwhelmingly positive reception, garnering glowing reviews from critics and boasting an 84% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
Cult Favorites
While many of Lillard’s projects have become instant hits, some took audiences time to warm to them before achieving cult status. One such film was the comedy-drama SLC Punk!, with Lillard taking on the lead role of Stevo, a down-and-out college graduate and punk who goes from party to party with his best friend, Heroin Bob (Michael A. Goorjian).
Also starring the likes of Devon Sawa, Jason Segel, James Duval and Adam Pascal, SLC Punk! was wildly underrated for its time as a film that deals with fighting against conformity, anarchism, and the creeping sands of time and growing up. The devastating coming-of-age film sees Lillard deliver a masterclass in rage as Stevo, as he grapples with those around him becoming “posers” – and eventually succumbing himself.
Lillard delivers several monologues that have audiences glued to the screen as his passion for punk rock pulses through every inch of his being. It is this raw passion that makes the final scenes of the film so catastrophic as that fire dies before our very eyes.
Reflecting on its impact, Lillard had no idea SLC Punk! would become quite as beloved as it is now: “The reason I think it is so big is because it’s made without any of those pretenses. It wasn’t worried about finding an audience. That movie was really about telling a story of those kids. Nobody had any kind of notion that it would be big at all. In fact, even today, the co-president Tom Bernard of Sony Pictures Classics was blown away by what it has done over the last 15 years.” (per Interview Magazine).
In 2004, Lillard featured in yet another cult classic with adventure comedy Without a Paddle. The actor stars as Jerry alongside Seth Green and Dax Sheppard as his best friends Tom and Dan (honestly, what a dream gang) as they embark on a hunt for D. B. Cooper’s lost treasure after finding a lost map following the funeral of their friend Billy (Antony Starr).
It was panned by critics who dubbed it a mid-range jumble of mildly funny moments, but comedy fans have since reclaimed it due to the plethora of wacky performances within and ludicrous scenarios that provide laughter just due to their downright ridiculousness. It’s pure Lillard and the niche brand of comedy we know and love him for.
Conclusion
What is it that makes Matthew Lillard such a remarkable figure in the world of cinema? From his breakout role in Serial Moms through to his iconic horror debut in Scream, award-winning performances in the Scooby-Doo franchise, making the transition to TV and an ensemble cast in Good Girls and The Bridge, and even turning his hand to directing with the emotional Fat Kids Rule the World, Lillard’s infectious charisma and dedication to his craft oozes from the set, through our screens, and right into our hearts.
For three decades, the actor has entertained us and showcased his incredible diversity across mediums and roles while delivering a stellar performance each time. While not all of his back catalog is critically acclaimed, you can guarantee that Lillard’s performance will be praised across the board.
There were times Lillard didn’t think he would make it. In fact, he revealed to The Ringer he had to ‘turn around his life’ after Scooby-Doo and reinvent himself to get work. But he did so in a way that he never lost sight of the humour that seems to run through his blood and he brings this levity to each and every one of his diverse roles. Whether he’s tackling heartbreak, friendship, death, or rebirth – Lillard has the talent and experience to tell it all.
