In 2002, the live-action Scooby-Doo movie — based on the 1969 animated series — was released. Fans were delighted to see the gang of five friends as they solved a mystery in a horror tropical resort. The actors who brought the characters to life were Freddie Prinze Jr. (Fred), Sarah Michelle Gellar (Daphne), Matthew Lillard (Shaggy), and Linda Cardellini (Velma), while Neil Fanning voiced Scooby-Doo.
The movie — directed by Raja Gosnell and written by James Gunn — was a big hit, and it earned $275.7 million at the worldwide box office on an $84 million budget. The sequel Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed was released two years later, but it didn’t see the same success as the first movie and was a box office flop, earning just $181.2 million.
One of the actors in the movie, Lillard, opened up about the impact of the disastrous sequel that he once thought would be his big ticket to star in bigger films for years to come. Lillard’s biggest pay was for Scooby-Doo 2, and in his mind, he’d finally made it big in Hollywood. However, that wasn’t the case.
“I thought I’d be No. 1 on the call sheet for the next 10 years of movies. And the reality was the exact opposite happened.”
The box office bomb crushed Lillard, and his plans for a bigger and brighter acting career were dashed. During the filming of Scooby-Doo 2, there were talks about a third installment in the franchise and this time, Gunn would not have only written the screenplay but directed the film as well. With the underwhelming performance of the second movie, however, Scooby-Doo 3 was entirely scrapped.
But now, Matthew Lillard is happier than ever
Lillard began his acting career in the ‘90s and was in films such as Serial Mom, Scream, and She’s All That. As he told Business Insider, he was focused on the roles that he got and his ambition to be a famous actor. At that time, he read what critics said about him and his movies, and he often visited movie theaters just to see if he was famous enough to be recognized. He was in his 30s then and when Scooby-Doo 2 flopped, it was a big blow. In the next several years, he continued to work in the industry, even lending his voice to Shaggy in a few Scooby-Doo animated TV shows and direct-to-DVD movies, but he wasn’t happy with how his career was going.
The actor was offered to compete in Dancing with the Stars, but he declined, thinking that he’d never be a “great actor” and win an Oscar if he competed in a dancing show. It was then that he realized he needed to figure out what he wanted to do and work toward that goal. “I just want to be an actor. I just want to be in movies. I want to reset my expectations,” Lillard said. For a while, he taught acting and even co-founded a liquor company — Find Familiar Spirits. In doing things outside entertainment, Lillard said, “I have power outside of just being an actor. That, to me, has been way more satisfying than getting a part in a movie.”
Now, Lillard is the happiest he’s ever been. He’s been labeled as a “scream king” for the various roles he’s portrayed and immortalized in the horror genre, some of which include Scream, Thirteen Ghosts, and Five Nights at Freddy’s (with a sequel coming in 2025) — roles that have solidified the opinion that he’s an underrated actor who deserves recognition for his versatility. He’s bounced back and found his footing, and right now, the 54-year-old actor is loving every second of it.
Published: Nov 2, 2024 09:54 am