Matthew Lillard Names the Movie Which Made His Career ‘Irrelevant'

Actor Matthew Lillard has reflected on the one movie he thought would put him on the A-list, but in fact turned his career “irrelevant.”

The film he was referring to was, perhaps unsurprisingly, the 2004 sequel Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed. Lillard was impeccably cast as Shaggy in the live-action reboot of the popular Hanna-Barbera cartoon. The 2002 original overcame disastrous reviews to gross $275 million worldwide, or $481.9 million adjusted for inflation. A sequel was all but guaranteed, for which Lillard earned his biggest payday to date. In his mind, he had made it.

"I thought I'd be No. 1 on the call sheet for the next 10 years of movies," Lillard explained in a recent interview with Business Insider. "And the reality was the exact opposite happened."

Monsters Unleashed grossed a comparatively paltry $181 million worldwide against a reported budget of $80 million, not including press and marketing costs. It was such a disaster that Warner Bros. axed plans for a third installment. The disappointing returns brought Lillard’s career to a swift and unexpected halt.

"I was caught up in the success of what I was doing, I was caught up in the parts I was getting, I was caught up in this drive to be quote-unquote famous,” Lillard admitted. "I was going to do Dancing with the Stars. And I was like, if I do Dancing with the Stars, I'll never win an Academy Award. If I do Dancing with the Stars, I'll be famous and not a great actor, and I really just wanted to be a great actor."

Lillard wasn’t exactly on fire before Scooby-Doo, but he had enough successful, teen-centric credits such as Scream (1996) and She’s All That (1999) to be on a path to leading man opportunities. Unfortunately, after Monsters Unleashed, his career lay dormant for the better part of a decade. Instead, he voiced Shaggy in a series of animated Scooby-Doo installments and took frequent guest roles on network shows and in low-budget movies.

“I’ve gone through good patches and bad patches. I’ve been irrelevant and thought I was never going to work again,” Lillard admitted.

His next major theatrical release would not be until 2011 with a key role in Alexander Payne’s Oscar-winning dramedy The Descendents. Lillard earned rave reviews for playing the man who had an affair with the lead character's comatose wife (George Clooney). The role resurrected Lillard’s career and bequeathed him with acting opportunities for which he wouldn’t have been considered in the Scooby-Doo days.

He went on to appear in David Lynch’s Twin Peaks revival and as the bad guy in the massively successful Five Nights at Freddy’s film adaptation. Lillard is currently shooting the sequel, due out next year.

The actor said that his career prospects changed only when his outlook on the business changed and he stopped focusing solely on recognition and salary. "I said, 'I just want to be an actor. I just want to be in movies. I want to reset my expectations,'" he resolved.