Matthew Lillard Feared He Wouldn’t ‘Win an Academy Award’ If He Did DWTS

Matthew Lillard has one big reason why he turned down an opportunity to compete on Dancing With the Stars.

The actor recently opened up to Business Insider about his early career struggles, specifically after 2004’s Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed bombed at the box office, much to his surprise.

“I thought I’d be No. 1 on the call sheet for the next 10 years of movies,” Lillard said about the Scooby-Doo sequel, which saw him play Shaggy. “And the reality was, the exact opposite happened.”

As a result, Lillard was forced to reevaluate his career, and that’s when his team at the time pitched him on joining ABC’s dancing competition series. However, the actor wasn’t jumping at the idea.

“I was going to do Dancing with the Stars. And I was like, if I do Dancing with the Stars, I’ll never win an Academy Award,” Lillard said. “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.”

The Good Girls actor ultimately decided that he just wanted “to be an actor. I just want to be in movies. I want to reset my expectations.’”

Even before Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed flopped, Lillard admitted he got “caught up in the success of what I was doing.” He would find himself frequently reading reviews and stopping by movie theaters, hoping to get recognized.

“I was caught up in the parts I was getting, I was caught up in this drive to be quote-unquote famous,” he recalled. “I’ve gone through good patches and bad patches. I’ve been irrelevant and thought I was never going to work again.”

Though Lillard’s early career days didn’t necessarily go as planned, he eventually found his groove, continuing to voice the character of Shaggy for multiple Scooby-Doo films, shows and video games. He has also starred in dozens of projects throughout his career, including 2023’s Five Nights at Freddy’s, and is set to return for the sequel.

He added, “I’ve been at all aspects of the career, and I love where I’m at right this second.”