Matthew Lillard Opens Up About His Career Renaissance, Scream Fandom

The actor — who first rose to fame in the ’90s and 2000s with roles in Scream, the live-action Scooby Doo movies, She’s All That and Thirteen Ghosts — is the first to acknowledge he’s been having quite the career resurgence lately. Lillard credits that comeback to his role as the villainous William Afton in 2023’s Five Nights at Freddy’s — which was a massive hit at the box office, despite a same-day drop on streaming.

In the wake of that film’s success came a wave of mainstream projects for Lillard, including roles in the Five Nights sequel, Daredevil Season 2 at Disney+, Cross Season 2 on Prime Video, a Tony Gilroy movie with Pedro Pascal and David Harbour, and two Mike Flanagan projects — The Life of Chuck and the upcoming TV adaptation of Stephen King’s Carrie.

He’ll also somehow return in Scream 7, despite his character — and OG killer — Stu Macher being taken out by a television set in the original movie.

“It’s crazy,” Lillard exclaimed while chatting with TooFab’s Brian Particelli about what feels different about this moment in time. “It’s been a really strange moment. I think a lot of it stems from the success of Five Nights. I think that sort of reinvigorated my career in a really profound way.”

“And I’m here for it,” he added, “I’m excited and just really grateful to get these opportunities again.”

For Lillard, now 55, with resurgence comes reflection.

“For so much of my career, it was always about like, ‘What’s next? What’s next? What’s next?’, climbing this ladder of like a career and success. And as you get older, it’s nice to every now and then stop and just appreciate how far up you’ve come,” he told TooFab. “Certainly in this moment, where I’m having all these things happening and having this like resurgence, you can’t help but to be grateful and just to be here, still working, still doing the thing I love and getting more opportunities than I’ve ever had.”

While Five Nights may be the secret to the Lillard-aissance, it’s Scream that really made him a household name back in 1996. As one of the first killers to rock a Ghostface mask alongside Skeet Ulrich, Lillard’s zany presence and memorable ad libs — “My mom and dad are gonna be so mad at me!” — made him another standout in a cast full of them. With a seventh film out next year — one, as we mentioned above, in which Lillard will appear — the fandom for the franchise is stronger than ever, as is the bond between the OG cast members.

“This last weekend, I was just in Michigan. We were just in Motor City Comic-Con and the moderator was like, the last question he asked is like, ‘Is there a Scream text chain? And we’re like, no, but we should start one. So literally we started one on WhatsApp like two days ago,” Lillard revealed, after a fan convention appearance with Ulrich, Jamie Kennedy and Rose McGowan.

“The funny thing is, listen, we all worked together. We were all friends. We’ve all been friends our whole lives,” he continued. “But now I think we see each other 50 days a year, 60 days a year. We eat every meal together, we’re inseparable on the road. And so that level of friendship, that level of commitment and how often we see each other has changed and sort of deepened the relationship, which has been really lovely.”

He noted, however, that his relationship with the franchise differs from the relationship fans have with the series.

“For me, it was a job, a job that was very special in my life that had made a deep impact. I made deep, very interpersonal relationships to the point where they shaped who I am as a person,” shared Lillard. “And some people go off to have college experiences. I went off and made a movie called Scream. So for me, it was a seminal moment in my life.”

“But then I went on to do other things and other movies and other films and had kids and family,” he added. “And everyone that sort of adores that property and are fans of that, they all have those things too, but they have their relationship with that property that’s so different than mine.”

The fan love for the franchise — as well as Scooby Doo — is never more apparent than on Halloween, a holiday Lillard admits he has “this weird sort of relationship” with thanks to trick-or-treaters.

“I just had this awareness that, because we’re talking about … like how does, what’s the impact on you and seeing the movie be so relevant now? And I’m like, it’s no impact on me, but I will say this, is that this last Halloween, I was looking at these kids walking by like Ghostface after Ghostface,” he shared. “For every like 10 kids, four of them are Scream. Somebody’s the gang from Scooby-Doo. It’s this weird sort of relationship I have with Halloween.”

“The fact that Skeet and I were the first in the masks, that we were the first ones to wear it, now, as I get older, I’m like, ‘Oh, that’s really weird,'” he added. “That’s like a deep, strange thing, that the thing that we started is now so prevalent across that whole month.”

Just don’t expect to see Lillard’s own kids — he’s dad to Addison, 23, Ace, 21, and Liam, 17 — gassing up their father’s impressive resume. “Needless to say, it’s not the center of attention in this house, that’s for sure,” he quipped.

“If your dad or mother is a heart surgeon, I don’t think your kids come home and be like, I’m so excited to hear about your surgery today. It’s just a product of being a dad,” he then told TooFab. “That said, I think that as my kids get older … my middle kid, Ace, is an actor. They are on their own journey as an actor, but sort of having conversations about career; they just performed in Carrie, so they got their first job, which was exciting. And having that to share between the two of us is great.”

Speaking briefly about Carrie, in which he’ll play Principal Grayle, Lillard called it “one of the greatest experiences of my entire career,” while praising Mike Flanagan, the man behind Netflix’s The Haunting of Hill House. “The way he operates, how he does his projects, the way he lets actors shine, I just loved every second of it,” added the actor, who “can’t wait to keep getting these chances” at this point in his life.

As for Scream 7, well, he’s keeping tight lipped about that — telling TooFab he hasn’t been paying attention to any fan theories about his return. “I haven’t, literally, I’ve not seen one,” he confessed.