Matthew Lillard on resenting Scooby-Doo after career stalled

Matthew Lillard resented Scooby-Doo for years. He never regretted it.

The actor described that split feeling in Variety's "Know Their Lines" video series, published on 8 October, looking back on playing Shaggy in the live-action films Variety.

Lillard starred as Shaggy in 2002's Scooby-Doo, opposite Freddie Prinze Jr., Sarah Michelle Gellar and Linda Cardellini. The film earned $275 million worldwide, according to Variety.

The follow-up, Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed, arrived in 2004. Lillard has said it brought him the largest paycheque of his career, and that the money helped keep him afloat afterwards.

He expected more. In an earlier Variety interview in 2024, he said he thought the sequel would leave him as No. 1 on the call sheet, the top name on a cast list, for the next 10 years Variety.

It did not work out that way. The sequel failed to cross the $200 million mark worldwide. Lillard said his career took a nosedive for a long time after the second film.

He spoke plainly about the cost. He and his wife sold their cars and their house, downsized their lives, and his wife went back to work. The sequel money helped them survive financially.

Work continued in other forms. He kept voicing Shaggy in animated Scooby-Doo films and took supporting roles in The Descendants and Trouble With the Curve.

He also revisited Scream, the 1996 horror film that helped make his name. He said he had no clue it would be anything other than another cheap horror film Know Their Lines.

In that 2024 interview, he also discussed turning down an offer to compete on Dancing with the Stars as his live-action career cooled.

What makes this stand out is the balance he strikes now. Resentment at being boxed in, gratitude for a paycheque that bought time. For fans, this means the Shaggy laugh stayed, even while the actor rebuilt.