Matthew Lillard may have won over audiences as Shaggy in the live-action ‘Scooby-Doo‘ movies, but his experience wasn’t entirely happy.
The actor recently admitted he spent years feeling bitter about the films because his career didn’t go the way he had hoped. However, his opinion has changed, and he now sees those difficult years very differently.
Matthew Lillard Once Blamed ‘Scooby-Doo’ For His Career Problems
Lillard played Shaggy in the 2002 live-action Scooby-Doo movie before returning for the 2004 sequel, ‘Monsters Unleashed‘. At the time, the ‘Scream‘ star saw the first film as a chance to take his career to the next level.
Related: James Gunn Deleted A Scooby-Doo Scene That Was Too Creepy For Theaters
He told Variety, “I felt a ton of pressure to not suck”. It was the first big movie that I was in, and it was a big opportunity for me. And then I felt that now that Scooby-Doo is this big movie, I’m now going to go off and be a big movie star.”
Unfortunately, his expectations didn’t match what happened next. Instead of getting bigger roles, Lillard watched his career slow down after the sequel. He even worried he might become one of those 1990s actors who never managed to make a comeback. At the time, he convinced himself that ‘Scooby-Doo‘ was responsible for his lack of work.
However, Lillard eventually realized the situation wasn’t that simple. After spending nearly two decades playing younger characters, he had reached an age where those roles no longer suited him. As he put it, “It’s like, no, you’re not working ‘cause you played a young-man, kid for 15, 17, 18 years, and you’re not anymore,” he reflected. “You’re a grown-ass man.”
Scooby-Doo Earnings Helped Lillard Through A Difficult Time
Despite his frustration, Lillard never wished he had walked away from Scooby-Doo. The actor admitted, “I resented Scooby-Doo for a long time,” he said. “But I never regretted doing it because the reality is that if I didn’t have the money I made in the second film, I wouldn’t have made it through.”
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His financial situation became so difficult that he and his wife had to make major changes to their lifestyle. They sold their cars and house and started living on a much smaller budget. His wife also returned to work, which became another important turning point in his life.
Lillard went on to explain just how much their circumstances had changed. “My wife and I would have had to sell everything. We eventually [did sell a lot]. We sold our cars, we sold our house. We basically downsized our lives so we could live very affordably. And my wife went back to work, and that was a real pivotal moment for me as well.”
Interestingly, Lillard now believes the experience taught him something important about himself. Before ‘Scooby-Doo‘, he had started seeing himself as a bigger star than he actually was. But the years after the sequel made him reconsider those expectations. Although he once tied his career struggles to the films, he now understands that his age and the roles he’d played were part of the problem.
Lillard no longer looks at that period with the same bitterness. Instead, he appreciates how it changed his perspective on Hollywood and his career.
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