The Big Picture

Matthew Lillard’s career has been associated with iconic horror movies, and he believes that horror films suit his energetic acting style. Lillard enjoys playing a variety of characters, both good and bad, and doesn’t want to be limited to one genre. Lillard did research on the Five Nights at Freddy’s franchise, focusing on the first three games, and paid attention to the depth of the fanbase’s love for the series.

Matthew Lillard really doesn’t need an introduction. You of course know him as one of the two original Ghostfaces, Stu Macher, in Wes Craven’s 1995 horror classic, Scream. He established himself as an actor with the ability to be a charismatic goofball, enough to deter any suspicion of being a crazed serial killer. But then, when the iron is hot, he strikes and reveals himself to be a psychopath but also just a misled teenage boy who doesn’t want to let his friend down. As he says in our interview, he never likes to be just one thing. After Scream, Lillard became synonymous with the horror genre, but he also gave us the first live-action iteration of one of the most lovable mystery solvers out there. James Gunn’s live-action Scooby-Doo and its sequel was a ’00s hit, one still revisited by the now adults who adored it as kids. Shaggy was a role that felt it was created for Lillard, so much so that he has also voiced Shaggy in various animated Scooby-Doo projects. In the 2010s, he stopped by Twin Peaks and worked with another horror auteur, David Lynch, and had a supporting role as the adulterer caught up in George Clooney’s existential crisis in Alexander Payne’s The Descendants (showing his tragicomedy acting chops that I hope he will use again soon). As if Lynch and Craven weren’t enough, Lillard will star in Mike Flanagan’s next film, The Life of Chuck.

Lillard is both a franchise and horror staple, and 2023 is a continuation of that. Lillard stars as the central villain of the Five Nights at Freddy’s movie adaptation, which is now the highest-grossing horror movie of 2023; and yet, we’ve had no word on a sequel (but Lillard teases that we shouldn’t be worried). We first meet Lillard in the film as what we think is the classic horror harbinger, a career counselor who offers Josh Hutcherson’s Mike the job of the night security guard at Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzeria. But Lillard is not restrained to a desk in the film: he’s really William Afton, the Voldemort of the series, the central antagonist who controls the murderous animatronics. The lore runs deeper and wider than any franchise Lillard has been involved with before — from the games, to the books, to the vast YouTube community devoted to the franchise. This is nothing new for Lillard who has stepped into multiple beloved franchises — and to him, it’s all about the fans.

Lillard and I talk Freddy’s, how important fanbases are, and how he doesn’t really care about Stu Macher despite the countless Tiktok accounts devoted to him.

Five Nights at Freddy’s Can you survive five nights? The terrifying horror game phenomenon becomes a blood-chilling cinematic event, as Blumhouse — the producer of M3GAN, The Black Phone, and The Invisible Man — brings Five Nights at Freddy’s to the big screen. The film follows a troubled security guard as he begins working at Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza. While spending his first night on the job, he realizes the night shift at Freddy’s won’t be so easy to make it through. Release Date October 27, 2023 Director Emma Tammi Cast Josh Hutcherson , Matthew Lillard , Elizabeth Lail , Mary Stuart Masterson Rating PG-13 Runtime 110 minutes

Why Does Matthew Lillard Keep Going Back to Horror?
COLLIDER: Hi, Matthew, how are you?

MATTHEW LILLARD: Hi, Emma. Your hair is delicious.

Thank you so much!

LILLARD: So adorable.

I’m very inspired by Drew Barrymore [as Casey Becker in Scream]. Matthew, I just have to start with I’ve literally adored you for, I think as long as I’ve been alive.

LILLARD: God bless you and your precious haircut, Emma.

Congratulations on a brilliant horror film yet again. I want to start with a question about your career as a whole. You’ve been such a beloved figure in the horror genre for going on 30 years now, what do you think personally draws you to scarier, darker fare?

LILLARD: Great question. Opportunity. Look, the reality is that the thing I always try to articulate to people as best I possibly can is that I’ve had a very blessed career here, but if somebody had come to me and said, “Hey, you’re gonna do commercials your whole life,” I’d be doing commercials. The reality is that we’re blue-collar. I’m an actor for hire, and so I’ve been lucky enough to be associated with movies that end up becoming iconic. But I could have easily been doing regional theater my whole life. There is a bit of luck involved for blue-collar. It’s hard to curate a career all the way through and be able to feed your family, so I’ve been very, very lucky that way.

But look, for me, I like doing horror movies. I think horror movies lend themselves to what I do best, which is bringing a lot of energy to a part which brings a lot of energy to a movie. I’m not really a character that sits in the background and contemplates deeply. I’m usually brought in to have a bunch of energy, to be funny, and so I think that the high stakes of horror lend themselves to my sweet spot of acting.

So, if you were given the option that for the rest of your career you could only play bad guys or good guys because obviously, you’ve given us such iconic villains, but then you’ve given us one of the most lovable heroes ever in Shaggy, which do you prefer, or does it always depend on the character?

LILLARD: You would never want to be stuck to vanilla or chocolate. You want that variety, and the great thing about my job, the great thing about my career, is that I’m able to do a little of everything. I’m able to play the evil guy, I’m able to play Shaggy. These little moments and pockets in between is part of the charm of my life, and so I wouldn’t want to decide. I mean, for me, I always like to bring who I am to a character and bring what my aesthetic is, what my belief is in acting, what it means to be a great actor. I always try to bring that to my characters, and so I wouldn’t want to be stuck in any one genre, but I think whatever I do, I will always be me, if that makes sense.

Why Did Matthew Lillard Want to Play William Afton in ‘Five Nights at Freddy’s?

Of course. What you’re saying there, of how you don’t ever want to be stuck to one type of character, I think that’s so true of your character in Five Nights at Freddy’s because you have this terrific scene — it’s actually my favorite scene — at the start with you and Josh [Hutcherson] in the office. You’re just this innocuous career counselor just trying to help, and then later — spoilers — you devolve into this Voldemort-level villain. So, was that something that really drew you, the fact that you were able to kind of play two versions of the same character?

LILLARD: Yeah, it was super fun. The reality is I sat down with Emma [Tammi], the director of the movie, and I’m like, “I don’t know why you’re coming to me,” because if you read just Yellow Rabbit, there’s not a lot to do. That’s when she said, “Well, we’re considering adding this piece to be a little bit of a distraction. He works here to send people to the pizzeria.” So that became very interesting to me, is that all of a sudden you can create this dichotomy between the two characters. And she had a really great sort of framing of that first moment, which is Everything Everywhere All at Once, that sort of weird kind of pseudo world, and I love that idea. So, playing in that tone made it that much more fun than just getting in the costume and showing up in the last scene.

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Yeah, exactly. And talk about prep and research for a bit. You’re given this part and there’s so much information, there’s so much lore to this franchise. Where did you start? Did you look to the games, the books, the YouTube community, or were you kind of like, “You know what, I’m Matthew Lillard, I’m going to bring my own creation to this. I’m not going to look elsewhere?”

LILLARD: That’s so funny, this weekend I was at a convention and somebody gave me a 60-page thesis on the lore of the character. So, if you’re reading this and you don’t understand the depth and the breadth of the fan base, it is that voracious. It’s been around through all these iterations. Thankfully for me, Scott [Cawthon], the creator of the game, said, “Just pay attention to the first three games.” That’s where the movie is really built around, so that’s where I started. I started playing. My kids played the game, so they showed me how it played, and so we started digging in as a family. Then of course, obviously, I started watching the YouTube videos that were available, watching people play through and watching their joy and trying to understand on a deeper level why fans wanted to see this movie so bad. That’s the part I didn’t really get with the screens locked off… I didn’t understand how that would translate, why that would translate into a movie, and why they would care, but they care deeply, and I wanted to be respectful of their passion and why they hold this franchise so close.

Now it’s the highest-grossing horror film of the year, and obviously, a big part of that is this built-in fan base, but you were saying there that you had no idea. When did the penny drop that you were like, “Oh my god, this is a big deal. This is going to be huge?”

LILLARD: It’s funny, I was leaving a basketball tournament with my son and Scott said to me on a phone call when we first met, he’s like, “The funny thing is you’re gonna be in a situation a year or two years from now and people are not gonna be able to think of this part without thinking about you.” And I thought that was really endearing because a lot of times people who are making the movies or directing the movies always think that your part is going to be life-changing or it’s gonna be monumental, right? And I just thought that was a platitude that he was offering me because I was considering coming on to the part. It was soon after it was announced, when I was doing a convention and my line went from three hours to five hours, and seeing people cosplay in my line, seeing people dressed up, and seeing the reaction online, that’s when I realized that this community isn’t a million loud fans – it’s 100 million fans who are passionate and voracious about the lore of this community. That’s when you’re like, “Oh, this is a big deal for a lot of people. I wanna make sure I don’t suck in the part.”

I was going to ask if you were nervous, but I guess this isn’t the first time you are stepping into a role that people love already. Before there was the live-action Scooby Doo it was a cartoon beloved by the entire world. Did you feel that you were like, “Right, I’ve brought an iconic character to life before, I can do it again,” or did this feel in any way different?

LILLARD: It definitely felt different. I mean, you could look at stuff online for Afton, but it was nothing compared to Shaggy. I had grown up with Shaggy. I watched the cartoon since I was a kid. Generation after generation had [Scooby Doo], and there was something I could directly be compared to. Afton’s sort of elusive, and it was a little different, but I think that you have to approach both fan bases with a deep passion to make sure that they’re happy with what you do, right? You try your best to do your best for them in that community, so in terms of that, it was similar.

Will There Be a ‘Five Nights at Freddy’s Sequel?

So it’s this really well-received film, it’s the highest-grossing of the year, as we say, and we still haven’t got any confirmation on a sequel. So number one, can you tell us anything, and number two, should one be confirmed, is there anything you didn’t get to explore about Afton in the first film that you’d be excited to get into for the second?

LILLARD: So, it is Hollywood, one can assume that in success more will follow. I don’t know if it’s gonna be greenlit, it certainly hasn’t been greenlit for me, but the expectation is that they will be making more, and in success, it’s Hollywood, they’ll make a lot more. So, that’s exciting. And if it does come back, and if I’m lucky to be brought back, sure, yeah. I mean, I barely got to touch him, right? I got to kill my daughter, but we know nothing about him. We know nothing about his history, about his journey. All those things that the fans have filled in for year after year, I’m excited to, with Scott and Emma, fill in all those pieces that the fans have always wondered about. That’s the thing is, how do we fill out expectations and how do we fill out the lore? I’ll be excited to be a piece of that story.

Matthew Lillard Reveals What He Learned From David Lynch on the Set of ‘Twin Peaks’
Image Via ABC

It just seems you’re so concerned with what the fans believe and it’s so nice to see that. I feel like there is another fan base that you’ve come into contact with that is very passionate, and that is the David Lynch people. You worked with him on Twin Peaks, and I’d be remiss not to ask a David Lynch question. You’ve worked with such brilliant auteurs, obviously Wes Craven, but from David Lynch, in working with him did you learn anything that changed your approach to your craft? Is there anything that you have taken from working on something like Twin Peaks to a project like this, let’s say?

LILLARD: For sure. The one thing you can draw a direct relationship from is that there’s a scene in Twin Peaks where the day I die it may be the last scene I think about before I pass on to the next region of existence because there’s a scene in that show where it says in the slugline of this monologue, this two-page monologue, “hysterically sobbing,” so the expectation to deliver a performance around David Lynch, around Twin Peaks, and deliver what he wanted, it was very, very stressful. Again, I didn’t want to screw up. So, I think that that’s very similar to this, right? This idea of, it’s not about me, it’s not about my performance, it’s really about making sure that the people that are passionate about this leave the theater happy, and at the end of the day, that’s my job. So yeah, the idea of delivering in a moment is super relevant.

Do you think that kind of connection to the fan base is something that comes naturally to you or do you think it’s from being a part of so many beloved franchises? I don’t know if you’ve seen on TikTok, but people still are obsessed with Stu Macher, they will dress up as him. Is it from your experience in franchises or do you think that’s a part of you as an actor just naturally?

LILLARD: You know, what’s funny is that I started doing conventions two or three years ago and directly hugging every person that comes to my line. Seeing what these movies mean to people changes your entire perspective on your job. I don’t really care about Stu Macher, it’s a part I played. It’s like if you’re a plumber, do you care about the house you did down the street and around the corner? No, it’s your job. And I love that job, it’s been nice to have that in my resume, but the reality is that it’s a part I did 20-plus years ago. So, what is important to me is that what it means to other people is deeply relevant when you see them all the time, and powerful. It’s not something I understood before that.

Look, I’m gonna just spit, like, my two cents out real quick. All these things we’re talking about in terms of my career, what it comes down to is that I’ve been blessed to be associated with three big franchises – Scooby Doo, Scream and now this. The one thing I know is that it’s about the fans and one of the great things is, and this is my job also, I’m supposed to say the lines and hit my mark and be on camera, but I’m also supposed to sell what we’re doing. So, the 4K comes out today on DVD and Blu-ray, and both of those, I think if you’re a fan, there’s additional material available. There is like a whole bunch of content you haven’t seen before. The one thing that I know that happens in this community, specifically, is that the kids go back and they watch and they rewatch and they slow it down and they find the Easter eggs. I think that around Christmas, if you’ve got a fan in your house, this little gem of a DVD, they’re gonna be excited about it. The first part was about me and my career, the second part is my job, which is, “Hey, the DVD is awesome, go check it out!”

Amazing. And just to end, I feel like 2023, from Five Nights at Freddy’s to Talk to Me to Evil Dead Rise has been such an interesting year for horror. I was wondering, is there a horror title outside of Five Nights at Freddy’s that’s stood out for you that you’ve loved?

LILLARD: Yeah. Talk to Me was fantastic. It’s one of the very few movies that I’ve gone out and seen in the theaters by myself, like an 11 o’clock showing, and I had a blast sitting in the dark and having the piss scared out of me. To me, if you look at what Jason Blum is doing, I know Jason didn’t do that one, but you look at what Blumhouse is doing, he is like the pointy tip of the spear for horror, and I just am so thrilled to be associated with them and I hope to keep doing more.

Five Nights at Freddy’s is available now on Digital, and on 4K UHD, Blu-rayTM, and DVD from Universal Home Entertainment. It is also available to stream on Peacock.

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