Matthew Lillard’s wife, Heather, went back to work and became their family’s main breadwinner during a prolonged slump in his acting career. He says they sold their cars and house and downsized to live more affordably.
Lillard, 56, told Variety’s Know Their Lines video series that he’d expected the Scooby-Doo films to turn him into a major movie star. Instead, after Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed came out in 2004, he struggled to find work. He recalled that his career “took a real nosedive for a long time.” He worried he might become “one of those guys from the ’90s that never comes back.”
For a long time, he blamed the franchise for his stalled career. But the money he’d earned from the sequel helped keep his family afloat. Lillard said: “I resented Scooby-Doo for a long time, 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.”
Describing the family’s adjustments, he said: “We sold our cars, we sold our house. We basically downsized our lives so that we could live in a very affordable way.” Heather’s return to work was, in his words, “a real pivotal moment for me as well.” Looking back at his expectations of stardom, he added: “I was always a character actor, and I thought I was more than that.”
Lillard has since returned to the Scream franchise and reached a new audience as William Afton in 2023’s Five Nights at Freddy’s. In a separate, earlier interview, Tommy DiDario asked on the I’ve Never Said This Before podcast whether he felt valued by Hollywood. Lillard answered: “No. Not really.”
He said people he’s worked with recognize what he brings, while Hollywood struggles to place someone who can be quirky, funny and energetic and also perform drama. Lillard said: “I’ve never fit in that little, perfect bubble.” He added: “I still fight for jobs now.”
