‘I will never win an Academy Award’: An almost ‘Dancing with the Stars’ participant stepped back at the last moment, confident that the show would kill his career

There have been many famous actors on Dancing With the Stars over the years but one who hasn’t yet graced the dancefloor is Matthew Lillard, the iconic actor behind Shaggy in the live-action Scooby-Doo duology, and other hit films in the last two decades.

Lillards lack of appearance under the spotlight in DWTS was entirely his own choice, and in a recent interview with Business Insider, the star opened up about why he chose not to appear on one of America’s biggest reality TV series.

According to the report, Lillard’s team approached him to take part in the show after the critical bomb that was Scooby-Doo 2: Monster Unleashed, which soured the upward trajectory of his acting career.

“I was going to do Dancing With the Stars. And I was like, if I do DWTS, I’ll never win an Academy Award, Lillard said in his interview. “I’ll be famous and not a great actor, and I really just wanted to be a great actor.”

After making this decision Lillard implemented major changes to focus on his one goal of being an actor and appearing in movies again. He even let go of his entire team and went back to his first agent as he “reset” his expectations.

While it would have been great to see the actor test out his dance moves, ultimately it seems like he made the perfect call for himself and since turning down the opportunity he has gone on to do plenty of things in the entertainment industry.

Lillard says he is happier than ever right now and his career prospects have broadened substantially outside of acting. He has also taught acting and is now producing liquor with his company Find Familiar Spirits, which has produced drinks based on hit franchises like Dungeons and Dragons and Haunting of Hill House.

While many fans will recognize Lillard from his role-playing Shaggy in Scooby-Doo, or maybe the sequel that we’d rather not talk about, more recently the star made waves for his appearance as William Afton in the Five Nights at Freddy’s movie (that cemented his status as the “scream king”), and he’s ready to return for that film’s sequel.

On the note of sequels, while there’s been much fan speculation and hope that we’d see Lillard’s return to the Scream franchise, during this recent interview the star doubled down saying that no, he won’t be coming back as Stu.

“It’s not something I consider. If they come to me then it’ll be a conversation. We never had the conversation.”

It is worth noting that the star did appear in Scream (2022) voicing the Flamethrower Ghostface, so while he didn’t really make a true return, he still lent his talents to the production. Let’s hope this means they can eventually get him to make a comeback as the murderous Stu, fulfilling all the fan theories about the character still being alive.