Noughties heartthrob looks unrecognisable 20 years after breakout role as he admits career flopped after ‘huge role’
HE played an eccentric teen in an iconic slasher before becoming goofy cartoon icon Shaggy Rogers in a film adaptation of Scooby-Doo.
Matthew Lillard's star was burning brightly in those late 90s/early noughties years, but fame can be a cruel mistress and disappear as quickly as it arrives.
The Scooby-Doo sequel failed to replicate its predecessor's success and plans for a third flick were scrapped.
In a new interview with , Lillard, now 54 and a little greyer than earlier in his career, admitted: "I thought I'd be No. 1 on the call sheet for the next 10 years of movie and the reality was the exact opposite happened.
"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."
The same year that Scooby-Doo: Monsters Unleashed was released, 2004, Lillard starred in cult comedy Without a Paddle, but the mainstream roles dried up in the years that followed.
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His turn as Shaggy secured him a steady income with him providing the voice of the character in a number of straight-to-DVD animated films over the next decade.
Despite this, there was a time when Lillard considered transitioning to reality television, but he ultimately decided against it to protect his acting career.
"I was going to do Dancing with the Stars," he said. "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 has had a resurgence in the past couple of years, receiving critical acclaim for a more serious role.
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Last year he played fictional serial killer William Afton in Five Night's at Freddy's, a supernatural horror based in a haunted pizzeria.
His next project is The Life of Chuck, an adaptation of Stephen King's 2020 novella, which boasts a stellar cast including Tom Hiddleston, Chiwetel Ejiofor and Karen Gillan.
Away from the screen, Lillard has launched his own alcohol brand Find Familiar Spirits - which puts out genre-specific drinks.
The most recent of which, Macabre Spirits, is a tequila released in conjunction with horror author Mike King's first novella.
He said of the labour of love: "The one thing I wish people understood is how much effort goes into each.
"I mean, the bottle, we designed the bottle. This frame, we designed the frame. Everything on the cap, that's us, you know, the art that goes into it.
"Mia Bergeron did the art for this. Mike Flanagan wrote an 80-page novella. We had to source the tequila. I mean, the whole thing is this year-long adventure that we duplicate every four to six months. It's definitely been an incredible journey, but it's a journey, nonetheless."
Lillard previously told how he's never been happier after making peace with the trajectory of his career.
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He no longer chases fame, but is instead committed to developing his craft and hopeful that Academy Award-winning role will pop up one day.
He told : "There's no quitting because you could get a job at any time even if you haven't worked in 10 years."