Matthew Lillard never imagined that Scream would become one of the most important franchises of horror cinema. When he participated in the first film, released in 1996, the actor was convinced that the project would have no impact and that his career would take off on television. Three decades later, he remembers that experience with a very different perspective.
During a panel in the New York Comic Con, Lillard said that one night he was coming back from the bloodcovered shooting, around 6: 00 a.m., while he was talking to his colleagues about his next professional steps. Courtney Cox would return to Friends and Neve Campbell would resume his participation in Party of Five, while he had just worked on a pilot episode for television.
That's when he expressed his little enthusiasm for the horror film directed by Wes Craven. “This movie is a piece of shit. No one's going to see her. I'm going to become a TV star,” he recalled thinking.
From failure to popular phenomenon
However, that pilot never came to fruition and Scream's fate was completely different from what he anticipated. “And here we are, 30 years later,” said Lillard, who also pointed out that no one would have been able to imagine what the film would end up representing for popular culture.
In Scream, Lillard played Stu Macher, one of the original killers who hide behind Ghostface's mask. His performance was part of a story that revitalized slasher cinema during the 1990s and gave rise to a franchise that continues to attract new generations of viewers.
The original tape also featured Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, Skeet Ulrich, David Arquette and Drew Barrymore. Since its premiere, the saga has accumulated seven films, including the most recent delivery, released in early 2026.
