Matthew Lillard made a splash back in 1996 when the slasher movie Scream was released, and his performance as co-killer Stu Macher became an iconic piece of a great horror franchise. In just a couple of weeks, Lillard will actually return to the series (despite seemingly dying on screen decades prior) with an appearance in the upcoming Scream 7. Speaking with Comic Book for the launch of his official Ghost Face Vodka for his company, Macabre Spirits, we naturally had to ask Lillard about his encounters with the Scream villain, including his return to the franchise in this month’s sequel. The star revealed to us that, as fans may expect, he had a bit of trepidation about going back to his role in the franchise and how it might tarnish the legacy of a fan-favorite character.
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“I mean, all I’m doing is putting everything that everyone loves in jeopardy, right?” Lillard said. “And there’s a world in which you come back, and I sh-t the bed as a 54-year-old man, doing what I did when I was 26 or whatever. I mean, that’s horrible. So, yeah, I was very excited to be asked. And then as we got closer and closer, I became more and more concerned that I would screw up what fans thought of me or Stu in general.”
Matthew Lillard Discusses What Makes a Great Scream Movie
Though Lillard has largely been absent from the series since the first film, he’s kept up with it (even if he’s missed a few of the sequels, confirming he hasn’t seen Screams 3 or 4). When we asked him what makes a good Scream movie separate itself from the follow-ups that are perhaps less beloved, Lillard honed in on a key element
“To me, what makes it a good Scream movie is that you’ve got great characters, and the movie has a sense of charm. I think one of the reasons the first film did so well is that you know all those characters. Wes Craven spends a lot of time in those characters, developing the entire film so that when you are in the last throes of Scream, these little idiosyncratic beats come out that are fun and charming and not just horrifically violent.’
He continued, “Yes, it is a horrifically violent, but there’s that moment where he’s crying on the phone about his mom to be so mad. There’s a charm to it. There’s little idiosyncratic beats that make it fun. And sometimes it helps balance the violence; they’re so violent.”
Scream 7’s Stu Return Could Bring Back 1 Thing From The Original
Lillard’s performance as Stu Macher in Scream has long been cemented as one of the best of the franchise, by extension making it one of the great slasher film roles as well. Having previously confirmed that some of the most iconic lines his character had in the film were actually adlibs (EG, “My mom and dad are going to be so mad at me”), Lillard confirmed that he had the same level of freedom with his mysterious return in Scream 7.
“I think Kevin Williamson understands that sometimes I come up with good stuff, so I won’t say anything else other than that,” Lillard teased. “There’s a handful of creators that allow me to play, and Kevin’s one of them.”
Scream 7 debuts in theaters on February 27, while Macabre Spirits’ Ghost Face Vodka is available now.
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Image courtesy of Tor Books/Macmillan -
Official art by Bastien Lecouffe-Deharme
