Matthew Lillard’s Favorite Wes Craven Memory Will Bring a Tear to Your Eye [Exclusive]

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After nearly 30 years, with so many of its stars having just found — or barely finding — their footing in Hollywood, the ensemble cast of the iconic 1996 horror flick, Scream, is truly the stuff of legend. By the time the movie hit cinemas, Courteney Cox had already become a household name for her work on the beloved sitcom Friends, while others like Rose McGowan are likely to look back on the title as one of the pivotal building blocks in their careers. According to Scream star Matthew Lillard, no matter what his young and incredibly talented cast had done before they stepped foot on his set, director Wes Craven treated them all with the same amount of respect. The Five Nights at Freddy’s star said as much during a recent chat with Perri Nemiroff for Collider Forces.

Looking back on his years as a young 20-something enjoying a steady rise to fame in the ‘90s, Lillard is more than grateful for the time that he spent alongside the rest of the gang on the set of Scream. But even more than that, he’s thankful to have had his path crossed with Craven’s, a man who Lillard has nothing but kind words for. Revealing how the legendary filmmaker ran his set, the actor said, “Wes Craven did a great job of making us all feel validated and that our work was good, and he wanted more of what we do.”

An Unforgettable Moment on the ‘Scream’ Set

While it sounds like every day was a wonderful day to be a member of the Scream cast, Lillard says that a particular memory sticks out in his head as a moment that he’ll never forget. Although he notes that he’s certain he’s told the story before, he said:

“I think I’ll tell it again now because I think it’s worth repeating because I do think that there are moments in life that you need to hold on to great memories, to the good shit, to get you through bad stuff.”

Turning the clock back to one of those days during filming, when there was a bit of downtime between scenes, Lillard continued:

“There’s a moment in the movie where we had one cellphone on set, and that’s crazy in itself, and I went out to call my mom on her birthday.
Marianne
[
Maddalena
] and Wes Craven were sitting outside, and I’m like, ‘Hey, do you mind if I borrow the phone and call my mom? It’s her birthday.’ And Wes said, ‘Oh, we were just talking about you.’ I was like, ‘Oh, yeah? What did you say?’ And
he said, ‘Someday you’re gonna win an Academy Award.’
I’ve told the story a million times, I don’t know why I’m getting emotional. I was like, ‘Oh yeah? Why don’t you tell my mom that?’ [Laughs] And he picked up the phone and called my mom and said,
‘Hey, your son’s incredible
. He’s gonna win an Academy Award someday.'”

Storing that truly one-of-a-kind moment into the back of his head for a rainy day, Lillard said that he’s used that glimpse into his past numerous times to pull himself out of life’s unavoidable pits. He told Nemiroff:

“So, in my life, when you feel insecure about your own career, talking about being canceled or never getting a chance to work again, or all these beats, you have to hold on to the moments when you feel like you’re incredible. And so for me,
Wes gave me this anchor in my life
where I was like, ‘Oh, somebody out there believes…’ An icon for me,
a very pivotal person in my life, felt like I was good enough
to win an Academy Award one day. Now, look, Academy Awards and all that, the older you get it’s not relevant, but the sentiment was. So, talking about a moment in that movie where you felt, ‘
Oh…
’ I hold onto that.”

We’re not crying — you are! Although his character may (or may not) be dead and gone for good, Lillard remains one of the foundational building blocks of a franchise that means so much to so many. You can take a trip down memory lane as Scream is now streaming on Max. And in the meantime, you can watch Lillard’s full episode of Collider Forces below.

Scream

A year after the murder of her mother, a teenage girl is terrorized by a masked killer who targets her and her friends by using scary movies as part of a deadly game.

Release Date: December 20, 1996
Runtime: 111 minutes
Writers: Kevin Williamson
Tagline: Don’t answer the phone. Don’t open the door. Don’t try to escape.