After 20 years, Matthew Lillard has come again from the important and field workplace fizzle of Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed.
The actor lately recalled the fallout from reprising his position as Shaggy Rogers within the 2004 live-action sequel as he opened up in regards to the ups and downs in his performing profession and the way he’s discovered “energy exterior of simply being an actor” over time.
“I’ve gone by way of good patches and dangerous patches,” Lillard advised Enterprise Insider. “I’ve been irrelevant and thought I used to be by no means going to work once more. I’ve been in any respect features of the profession, and I like the place I’m at proper this second.”
Lillard first appeared as Shaggy within the 2002 live-action adaptation of the 1969 cartoon, alongside Sarah Michelle Gellar as Daphne Blake, Freddie Prinze Jr. as Fred Jones and Linda Cardellini as Velma Dinkley. The film topped the field workplace when it premiered, grossing $275.7 million worldwide.
Though Monsters Unleashed additionally premiered atop the field workplace, it earned greater than $90 million lower than the unique, in the end prompting Warner Bros. to cancel a deliberate sequel.
Sarah Michelle Gellar, Freddie Prinze Jr., Linda Cardellini and Matthew Lillard in Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed (2004). (Warner Brothers/Courtesy Everett Assortment)
Lillard defined, “I assumed I’d be No. 1 on the decision sheet for the subsequent 10 years of flicks. And the fact was the precise reverse occurred.”
Following the flop, the actor’s brokers supplied him a spot on Dancing with the Stars. He assumed the present would make him “well-known and never an awesome actor, and I actually simply needed to be an awesome actor.”
Lillard in the end left the company and went again to his first agent throughout a time when he determined to “reset my expectations,” going again to educating performing. He additionally launched his spirits model Discover Acquainted Spirits.
“I went again to on the lookout for different issues in my life different than simply performing,” mentioned Lillard, including: “One of many nice moments in my life is knowing that I’ve energy exterior of simply being an actor. That, to me, has been far more satisfying than getting an element in a film.”
After showing in Mike Flanagan’s adaptation of Stephen King’s The Lifetime of Chuck, anticipated in summer time 2025, Lillard can subsequent be seen reprising his position as William Afton in 5 Nights at Freddy’s 2, premiering Dec. 5, 2025 in theaters.
