{"id":279104,"date":"2026-02-11T18:27:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-11T18:27:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/279104\/"},"modified":"2026-02-11T18:27:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-11T18:27:08","slug":"matthew-lillard-slams-his-own-performance-in-scream","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/279104\/","title":{"rendered":"Matthew Lillard Slams His Own Performance in Scream"},"content":{"rendered":"

Matthew Lillard\u2019s<\/a> turn as Stu Macher in 1996\u2019s Scream<\/a> may have gone down in history as one of the most iconic horror movie villain portrayals, but the actor doesn\u2019t seem to agree with the general consensus. Ahead of his return to the franchise in the upcoming Scream 7<\/a>, he reviewed his own performance in the fan-favorite slasher thriller in a recent interview and concluded that he ended up overacting in most of his scenes.<\/p>\n

Matthew Lillard says he was \u2018just being an idiot boy\u2019 in Scream<\/p>\n

During his recent appearance on a podcast, the Scooby-Doo<\/a> star revealed that he had improvised most of his iconic lines in Scream. He also remarked that, 30 years later, most of his scenes in the film feel overacted.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do think you see a young actor trying hard in every scene,\u201d Matthew Lillard said during a recent episode of On Film\u2026With Kevin McCarthy<\/a>. He added, \u201cYou know, doing too much. He\u2019s chewing the scenery.\u201d However, Lillard\u2019s statement seemed to have taken host Kevin McCarthy by surprise, who contested by saying that the actor was \u201cbrilliant\u201d in the movie.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think what is brilliant is that he [Craven] has crafted a perfect Jenga tower of performances,\u201d Lillard replied. \u201cJamie Kennedy\u2019s perfect. Neve Campbell\u2019s perfect. W. Earl Brown\u2019s perfect. Courteney Cox, Skeet Ulrich, all of them\u2026have these moments. He got the right cast and the right script and the right sort of performances to build something in the moment that caught the zeitgeist.\u201d<\/p>\n

McCarthy then asked Lillard about Stu\u2019s \u201cdrooling of blood\u201d scene in Scream\u2019s final moments. The 56-year-old thespian once again blamed himself for putting out a seemingly subpar acting performance, stating, \u201cThat\u2019s Matt Lillard chewing scenery\u2026That\u2019s all Matt Lillard just being an idiot boy. That\u2019s that thing like, doing too much.\u201d<\/p>\n

While many would disagree with Matthew Lillard\u2019s statements about his acting in the original Scream, the seasoned actor now has a chance to right all wrongs in the franchise\u2019s upcoming installment. He is all set to reprise his role of Stu Macher in Scream 7, which comes out in theaters on February 27, 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Matthew Lillard\u2019s turn as Stu Macher in 1996\u2019s Scream may have gone down in history as one of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":279105,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[156,1016,25175,409,111,139,69,31699,26354],"class_list":{"0":"post-279104","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-entertainment-news","10":"tag-matthew-lillard","11":"tag-movies","12":"tag-new-zealand","13":"tag-newzealand","14":"tag-nz","15":"tag-scream","16":"tag-scream-7"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279104","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=279104"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279104\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/279105"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=279104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=279104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=279104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}