Casting directors, listen up: Matthew Lillard has his next role picked out.
“I’m ready for my rom-com era. I’m ready to be the boy who needs love,” Lillard, 55, told Us Weekly exclusively on Thursday, September 18, while promoting his partnership with Exact Sciences’ Cologuard test.
As for who’d play opposite him in this future rom-com? The Scream alum has a few ideas.
“My first answer is Gillian Anderson, but my political answer is Tom Cruise,” Lillard told Us. “I really want to say something politically supportive of the LGBTQ+ [community]. I would love to do a gay rom-com. I think the world needs a smash-hit rom-com with two beautiful men or two fantastically gorgeous women.”
He added: “I [just] need to work on my abs. If they’re gonna call me, give me time. I’ve got to work on my abs.”
While he has yet to star in a same-sex romantic comedy, Lillard has touched almost every other genre between his work in horror, comedy, drama and more across film and television.
“I have definitely been lucky across the expanse of my years to do a lot of really fun stuff,” he told Us, pointing to upcoming roles in Scream 7, Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, Cross, Daredevil and a new Carrie miniseries from Mike Flanagan. “I’ve got so much work right now in a world where a lot of actors need work because we’re still suffering from the double strikes in our community. People should know it’s hard out there right now for actors and anyone in the film and television industry, so I feel very blessed and lucky that my life is thriving right now. I’m very grateful.”
The actor also teased a potential return to the Scooby-Doo franchise in a new, “super fresh” cartoon pilot — though he remains humble about the legacy of the 2002 live-action comedy horror in which he first played Shaggy.
“Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid is the work of legends. Scooby-Doo is a movie that got stuck in everyone’s minivans while DVDs were being removed from the zeitgeist,” he joked. “It’s a minivan legend for sure. The over-under on hours played in a minivan is set at a billion, and I would smash the over.”
Yet Lillard maintains his gratitude for every step on the journey of his career.
“If I am rounding second, headed for home, this a good, long sprint, so I’m happy,” he told Us. “Part of that is Cologuard. If you’re out there, 45 or older [with a] doctor recommendation, I will say that, having used it myself, the thing I think is great about it is that it removes fear. It alleviates fear. To me, if this science can help save lives… you should check it out because it’s really fantastic.”
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