Matthew Lillard knows his career stirs up a lot of nostalgia for some fans. The actor has been in the business for decades, and several of his films like Scream and the live-action Scooby-Doo movies have become cultural touchstones for a generation.
“When you have been around as long as I have, there’s something in my life that means something to somebody,” Lillard told Andrea Towers at the TV Insider and TV Guide Magazine studio, sponsored by Hollywood unBranded, during San Diego Comic-Con 2022. He then pointed out the staying power of 1996 horror blockbuster Scream, in which he played the villainous Stu Macher, as well as his cult favorite 1998 film SLC Punk!. Reflecting on that flick about a group of ’90s punk rock disenfranchised kids, he said, “If you are a kid living on the outside, that movie has resonance.
“Fandom is really special that way,” he continued, noting that’s why he loves Comic-Con so much. “You don’t know how you’re affecting people’s lives, but there’s a moment [where] you mean something to somebody else. My job is just a job, but I know that the parts I have played mean a lot to people … Everyone wants to be Tom Cruise, but at some point, you come to your own journey, and for me, it’s really been about acknowledging and respecting that relationship to the fans and to the people who love you.”
Lillard has been playing Shaggy Rogers on-screen and via voiceover for nearly 20 years now, and he’s adding another Shaggy project to his resume in the MultiVersus video game, which he said “definitely feels like the beginning of an epic game experience.”
MultiVersus, out August 15, is a multiplayer Smash Bros-like video game that brings beloved Warner Bros. characters together, like Shaggy, Iron Giant, Superman, Batman, and “an incredible array of characters,” as Lillard described. He’s eager to pit Shaggy and Superman against each other, and we can’t deny that face-ff sounds like something we never knew we needed.
Lillard is delighted to still be carrying the Shaggy banner after all these years. “It’s a delicious character,” he said. “I’m super happy to still be playing him.”
Learn more about the game and why Lillard loves fandoms so much in the full interview, above.
