Matthew Lillard has spent decades making audiences scream, laugh and occasionally develop a crush on the guy they probably shouldn’t trust. From playing the unhinged Stu Macher in Scream to bringing the stoner-coded Shaggy to life in Scooby-Doo, the actor has built a career out of unforgettable characters. Now, his conversations about Scream 7 and Carrie are revealing another side of him, one that has less to do with his ’90s heartthrob status and more to do with standing up for others, acknowledging mistakes and understanding what it means to feel like an outsider.
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Of course, the looks have not exactly stopped working in his favor. He still has that mischievous smile and chaotic charm that make revisiting his older films a perfectly reasonable use of an afternoon. Shaggy may have spent much of his screen time panicking over ghosts and searching for snacks, but his appeal has endured for decades. We can appreciate a man who understands the importance of a little humor, a little mystery and, apparently, a very substantial appetite.
Yet there’s more to Lillard’s current horror era than nostalgia and a fresh round of appreciation for his face. His recent comments about returning to Scream 7 and connecting with queer viewers through Carrie offer a more complicated picture of an actor reflecting on his choices and the people he hopes his work will reach.
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Matthew Lillard Admits He Got ‘Scream 7’ Wrong
Lillard recently revealed that he feels ashamed of returning to Scream 7 after Melissa Barrera was fired from the franchise over social media posts criticizing Israel amid the war in Gaza.
The actor originally played Stu Macher in Wes Craven’s 1996 Scream and reprised the role in the seventh installment, which opened in February and became the franchise’s highest-grossing entry with $214 million worldwide.
Despite the film’s box-office success, he has been reconsidering his decision to return. During a 30th-anniversary screening of the original Scream, a fan asked him about the challenges of speaking out on political issues as an actor. His answer made his priorities clear.
“I don’t know how else to do it,” Lillard told the fan. “For me, I have queer kids. If I’m not standing up for queer kids or kids in the trans community, then what the fuck am I doing? If I’m not standing up against ICE, then what the fuck am I doing?”
“Fuck ICE” — Matthew Lillard https://t.co/LrScmGw9U6
— Culture Crave 🍿 (@CultureCrave) November 1, 2025
Lillard has previously made headlines for speaking out against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, including saying “fuck ICE” at a Scream screening. He acknowledged, however, that taking a public position can become difficult when someone’s livelihood is involved. Barrera’s departure offered a particularly painful example.
“Melissa Barrera, who’s a beautiful actor, was fired for what she said after the whole Palestinian — what started happening in Israel,” Lillard said. “It’s really fucking bullshit and really hard, and she’s on the right side of history. When they start coming after your job, sometimes things are worth it… When that happened to Melissa, the whole world didn’t pipe up. But she was a year early on what the fuck’s going on. But the whole world should have popped up and said, ‘She’s right.’ And they didn’t. And that’s brutal.”
Spyglass, the production company behind Scream, said it had “zero tolerance for antisemitism or the incitement of hate in any form, including false references to genocide, ethnic cleansing, Holocaust distortion or anything that flagrantly crosses the line into hate speech.”
Barrera’s firing sparked backlash from supporters, including protesters who called for a boycott of Scream 7 outside its Los Angeles premiere.
For him, the difficult part was recognizing that his excitement about returning to a beloved role had overshadowed the circumstances surrounding his former co-star’s departure.
“I went back to do ‘Scream,’ and I got called out. And I’m like, ‘Oh, fuck. That’s brutal,’” he continued. “I feel bad about that. I feel ashamed about that. Because in that moment I was so excited to go back, I didn’t really think about Melissa and that journey. I didn’t say no. I’m embarrassed; that’s the truth… I blew that. I’m on the wrong side of history for that. I still like being in the movie [but] it may not have been the best idea.”
It’s an unusually candid admission from an actor reflecting on a major franchise installment. Lillard hasn’t said that he no longer enjoys being part of Scream 7. Instead, he has acknowledged that he wishes he had thought more carefully about what returning to the franchise meant in the circumstances.
That distinction matters. Loving a role and questioning a professional decision can coexist, even when the conversation is uncomfortable.
‘Carrie’ Could Help Queer Viewers Feel Seen
Lillard’s latest horror project explores the outsider experience from a different direction.
Mike Flanagan’s adaptation of Stephen King’s Carrie revisits the story of a teenage girl whose sheltered upbringing, difficult relationship with her mother and cruel treatment at school collide with her emerging supernatural abilities. Summer H. Howell plays Carrie White, while Samantha Sloyan portrays her mother, Margaret. Lillard joins a cast that includes Amber Midthunder, Josie Totah, Alison Thornton, Joel Oulette and Arthur Conti.
The story is familiar to horror fans, but Lillard hopes this version will resonate with people who know what it feels like to be excluded.
Speaking with Gayety alongside Midthunder, the actor reflected on raising queer children and his own experiences growing up feeling out of place.
“And I do think having queer kids and being a kid that grew up in drama, feeling like I was never cool or never part of that it club, I feel like people will sit in front of this TV show and they will feel seen,” he said.
It is a personal connection that helps explain why he sees more in Carrie than supernatural abilities and a prom night destined to go horribly wrong. At its heart, the story examines cruelty, rejection and the damage that can happen when people are singled out for being different.
Queer viewers familiar with feeling excluded may recognize those emotions, even if their own experiences look nothing like Carrie’s. The supernatural elements might be fictional, but the desire to belong is not.
Lillard sees the character’s journey as one of strength and self-discovery.
“It’s a story of a kid rising up out of the ashes to find their own superpower,” he said.
That perspective offers a different way to approach a character so often remembered for the horrifying climax of her story. Before Carrie becomes a figure of horror, she is a teenager trying to navigate a world in which the people around her repeatedly fail to treat her with kindness.
And for viewers who have spent time feeling as though they don’t fit in, that part of the story might hit closer to home than the supernatural scares.
From Shaggy to Stu Macher, Lillard Has Range
Depending on your generation, Matthew Lillard might be the guy who terrified you in Scream, the lanky best friend you grew up watching in Scooby-Doo, or the familiar face who keeps appearing in projects worth checking out.
Matthew Lillard as Shaggy in Scooby-Doo (2002) was so spot-on that even Casey Kasem, the original voice actor, called to praise him. His performance was so authentic that Lillard went on to voice Shaggy in the animated series for nearly two decades. https://t.co/tgWpHZSl9G
— cinesthetic. (@TheCinesthetic) June 8, 2026
For many fans, Shaggy Rogers remains a particular favorite. He brought the character’s nervous energy, enormous appetite and stoner-coded humor into live action while preserving the sweetness that made Shaggy lovable in the first place. The character might have been easily frightened, but Lillard made him impossible not to root for.
Stu Macher, meanwhile, was a very different beast. His performance in the original Scream blended manic humor with genuine menace, helping turn Stu into one of the franchise’s most memorable characters.
The contrast is part of Lillard’s appeal. He can be goofy, charming, unsettling or downright ridiculous, sometimes within the same performance. His career has given audiences plenty of reasons to remember him, and his enduring appeal certainly doesn’t hurt either. Gay fans can appreciate an actor’s range while acknowledging that a mischievous grin and a little scruff remain an effective combination.
But Lillard’s own reflections on growing up feeling uncool add another dimension to his connection with Carrie. During the Gayety interview, he and Midthunder also brought humor to the conversation, joking about the production and their characters. He playfully described his principal as the moral compass of the show, while Midthunder was less convinced he had done everything possible for Carrie.
Their exchange offered a lighter glimpse of the production, which Lillard described as one of the most rewarding experiences of his career. He also praised working with Flanagan and recalled the scale of the prom set.
matthew lillard, 1998. https://t.co/q9DLDC6Daa
— 🦇 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐯𝐚𝐦𝐩𝐢𝐫𝐚 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐰 | nsfw (@horrorsthetics) May 5, 2024
After decades of memorable horror performances, he clearly has plenty to say about the genre. This time, though, the conversation goes beyond the characters he plays and into the people who might recognize themselves in their stories.
Matthew Lillard Is More Than a ’90s Crush
It’s easy to build a Matthew Lillard feature around nostalgia. Bring up Stu Macher, revisit the live-action Scooby-Doo films and remind everyone why Shaggy became such a beloved character. The thirst, as they say, will take care of itself.
But Lillard’s recent comments deserve more attention than a simple celebrity-crush retrospective.
His remarks about Scream 7 show an actor willing to acknowledge a decision he regrets. His comments about Carrie reveal why stories about rejection and belonging matter to him, both as someone who remembers feeling like an outsider and as a parent to queer children.
Those two conversations shouldn’t be turned into an easy redemption story. Supporting queer people in principle and reflecting critically on a professional decision are different things. Lillard has acknowledged the gap between what he believes and what he wishes he had done.
That honesty makes the conversation more interesting than another round of Hollywood nostalgia.
He can still be our favorite chaotic horror guy. He can still make us want to revisit Shaggy’s snack-fueled adventures and remember why Stu Macher remains unforgettable. And yes, the man can still inspire a crush.
Matthew Lillard confirms his return as Stu Macher in ‘SCREAM 7’ https://t.co/FJvhYV9Gfj
— DiscussingFilm (@DiscussingFilm) January 31, 2025
But his latest projects offer another reason to pay attention: the opportunity to see an actor think seriously about the people behind the stories, the choices he makes outside the frame and the viewers who might find a little comfort in the characters he helps bring to life.