By India McCarty
Matthew Lillard has a few words of wisdom for aspiring actors dreaming of Hollywood glitz and glamour.
“Living with purpose, for me, is maintaining this idea of being an artist, holding it through the good times and the bad times, not defining it by any of this,” Lillard told Movieguide® while attending the red carpet premiere of his latest movie, THE LIFE OF CHUCK.
The SCOOBY-DOO actor added, “This is the highlight of being an actor.”
“To any actor out there,” Lillard said. “Hey, this is not representative of you being an artist. This is just a moment.”
He explained that his career as an actor and artist is “about perseverance, duration and longevity.”
Longevity is the right word — Lillard has been a working actor since 1991, starring in hit movies like SCREAM and SHE’S ALL THAT, as well as popular TV shows like CRIMINAL MINDS, TWIN PEAKS and GOOD GIRLS.
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THE LIFE OF CHUCK is based on a short story by Stephen King and was directed and written by Mike Flanagan.
“I was so moved by [the story],” Flanagan said in an interview with ComicBook. “It immediately struck me as, I want there to be a movie that can do this for my kids the way I felt when I read it. So, they were always kind of the engine for it, and it informed every, every creative choice. My audience was them, for the longest time. And we didn’t have a studio kind of involved to point me any other way. So it got to stay pure that way.”
Lillard also spoke about the message of THE LIFE OF CHUCK, telling Dread Central, “I’ve got this little beautiful part [in it] that I love so much.”
“It’s so sincere, and people can bristle,” he admitted, but he thinks audiences will ultimately connect with the movie because it’s like “no movie you’ve ever seen before.”
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He reiterated this point during a recent press conference for THE LIFE OF CHUCK, saying, “If we can get them to the theater, I think, what my experience was in the theater, both times I’ve seen it was that something happens to the people watching it.”
“But the reality is I do think the movie is special. And my hope is that somehow, someway, they find themselves in that dark theater and they find an experience that is only happening in those shared spaces where the magic happens.”
Lillard’s words of advice for up-and-coming actors are a reminder that the work itself is always more important than the flashy benefits that can come along with it.
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