Matthew Lillard Thought ‘Scooby-Doo 2’ Would Keep Him as the Top Choice for Roles for the Next Decade – But When It Flopped, His Career Faded

Matthew Lillard thought his career would take off after the success of 2002’s live-action Scooby-Doo, which made $275 million worldwide and launched a sequel. He signed on to play Shaggy again in 2004’s Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed, scoring his biggest payday yet and believing his career was only going up from there.

“I thought I’d be the top choice for the next 10 years,” Lillard recently revealed. “But the opposite happened.”

When Scooby-Doo 2 flopped and didn’t reach the $200 million the original earned, Lillard’s career stalled, forcing him to rethink his goals. He admitted he’d been too focused on chasing fame and getting big roles.

At one point, he considered doing Dancing With the Stars but realized it might shift him further from his goal of becoming a respected actor. “I told my agent, ‘I just want to act. I want to be in movies. I need to reset my expectations.’”

With this new mindset, Lillard found success in unexpected ways. Alongside continuing to voice Shaggy in animated Scooby-Doo projects, he landed roles in films like The Descendants, which won an Oscar, and Clint Eastwood’s Trouble With the Curve.

Via Variety

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