Matthew Lillard Says He Thought ‘Scream’ Was ‘Lame’ and ‘Nobody’ Would See the Movie Before It Became a Hit: ‘Here We Are 30 Years Later’

Matthew Lillard might best be known for his appearances throughout the uber-popular “Scream” franchise, but when he filmed the original installment, he didn’t think it would become the cult classic its regarded as today.

via: EW

The Scream star explained at New York Comic Con that he didn’t have very high hopes for the project when he was making it.

“I was in the back of a car, driving home from work one night, at like six in the morning covered in blood,” Lillard said. “I’d been laying in the back of a van, and there’s like six actors in the car, and everyone’s talking about what they’re doing next. And Courteney [Cox] is going back to Friends, and Neve [Campbell] is going back to Party of Five. And I’d literally just been on a pilot, and I’m like, ‘This movie’s lame. Nobody’s gonna see it. I’m going to go become a television star.’”

But that wasn’t to be.

“That pilot never went, and here we are 30 years later,” Lillard said.

He added that “nobody could have possibly ever imagined” what happened when the movie was released, and he has a point. Scream has spawned an entire franchise since its debut, with its seventh installment releasing earlier this year.

Lillard began his career in the ’90s, with movies such as Serial Mom, Hackers, and Mad Love. But Scream, in which he played Stu Macher, was his breakout. He’s made appearances in some — but not all, because of the way his story arc plays out — of the movies.

Aside from his important role in horror, Lillard has found a place in the Scooby-Doo universe as well, playing Shaggy in live-action and cartoon versions of the mystery series.

And even with that franchise, Lillard had mixed feelings. He recently confessed that he resented the Scooby-Doo films for years because his role in the live-action films coincided with a career dip.

“It was right about this time, after the second movie, that my career took a real nosedive for a long time,” he told Variety in an interview published on Thursday. “Like, I may be one of those guys from the ’90s that never comes back. This movie is a love-hate relationship for me because I was like, ‘It’s Scooby Doo’s fault. That’s why I’m not working.’”

While he held some negative feelings about the films for years, Lillard was still glad to have been a part of the franchise.

“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.”