Matthew Lillard Quotations

I direct with energy. I believe in energy. I think energy is an electric thing in actors. I try to inspire, encourage, and make choices with lots of energy. And truth. I'm big fan of truth and being funny. I like leading 50 people into battle every day.

There are several times when I walked into a room and just felt like such a sham. That's the problem with auditioning.

Somehow, someway, you get kind of labeled this guy who was in a Freddie Prinze Jr. movie too many. And Freddie Prinze Jr. - it's not his fault, either - it's just these are the things that happen. I'm not a George Clooney; I don't have a ton of opportunities.

I think one of the main reason's Rick Rosenthal and Whitewater PIctures decided to 'get in bed with me' on 'Fat Kid' was because I came in with a strong business plan as well as a creative vision on how to make the film.

You just realize that at the beginning of 'Scooby' you're just going to start at level ten and stay at ten the entire time. It's hard. It physically beats you up. It's definitely one of the hardest movies you can do.

There's nothing like being an adult male and being pulled under water without your own control.

I stayed at a Howard Johnson's once when I was 19 and that kind of scarred me for life.

Thing is, I'm a funny actor, but I'm not good at being funny. I'm going to ramble for a second: I'm an actor who can make things funny in the moment, like in stakes or in circumstances or out of character.

How much do you have to pay someone to be in a George Clooney/Alexander Payne film? Nothing! Because everyone in the world wants to be a part of it. Therefore you pay nothing. And that continues until you become something they need... I'm not that kind of actor. I'm blue collar and very replaceable.

To me, the punk rock kids I grew up with were really, really smart, and to me, respecting those kids was a really big deal.

I don't go to parties. I don't go to clubs. My friends and I don't go drinking, we play D&D. I'm still a weird entity in the world.

When I was in high school, I was the guy directing plays after class. I started my first theater company at 19, and my second theater company at 21. I've always been a guy who doesn't do well with the passive nature of being an actor.

There's not a comedy actor who doesn't want a chance to do drama, and vice versa. As actors, we're always looking to be pushed and to do the other side of the coin.

I like the fact that a modern television and modern drama on cable has characters that are really intricate and deep and have multiple layers.

I fired a bunch of people and kind of went back to my roots. I fired my agent - I had this big, fancy agent and a big fancy manager and a big fancy lawyer - and I went back to my first agent and said, "I want to go back to just being an actor."

The great thing about acting is the longer you do it, the more you realize that all those realities are inside you. No matter how crazy they are, you can pretend that they are a part of you. The great thing about this job is you get to play with every aspect of your id and who you are.

The older I get, the more I can't stand violence and have a hard time with seeing people die in horrific ways. It gets harder and harder to watch and deal with that stuff.

For better or worse, I take my acting seriously. I may not have been in the best movies ever made, but I take it deathly serious, and I love being an actor.

The more lines I have, in general, the worse a movie is. It's very rare that I get say great things in fantastic movies. So if you see me as like, number one on a call sheet? In general, that movie is pretty bad.

When you go from movie to movie, it's like going from family to family. You work with people for really intense hours on really long days and a bond happens. So even when a movie is terrible, you love it.

I learned a lot, in terms of inspiring people. It became very clear to me, very early on, that directing a movie was a lot like being in a theater company.

You can inspire people to give you greatness, or you can micro-manage them into your own one specific kernel of an idea. To me, I think that when you inspire people to give their best, then you're going to get the best result.

I think everyone is given drama, by virtue of the fact that we all have drama in our lives, but not everyone can make people laugh.

My first love is acting, but the reality is that I just don't get too many opportunities to stretch, and grow, and inspire myself as an actor, certainly not in terms of where I make money. Yeah, I can go off and do a play, but the reality is as a profession, directing is exponentially more satisfying.

I've always been a guy that doesn't do well waiting for people to say, "You can act." It's always been a part of me.

Nothing would make my kids happier than to do another movie.

I'm almost 40, so it's an awkward time in my career. You kind of hope it comes through and, if not, I'll be a waiter. Awesome.

The stage is a training ground and it's where you learn what's funny and what's successful.

My tone and my style are reflected in the movies I choose to make. I want to make big movies. My dream is to be Jon Favreau or Ben Affleck.

If I could act in theater, my whole life, and never act in film or television again, and just direct the rest of my life, I would gladly do that.

I've really enjoyed the independent film world. I've had a blast. But, the reality is that I really want to make bigger movies. If I could make movies that carry great characters and great performances and great pathos, and can have an explosion or two, that would be fine with me.

Being an actor, when you sign onto a project - whether it's good, bad, or indifferent - you kind of fall in love with it. You fall in love with the experience, you fall in love with the memories.

It's always fun to play a bad guy because you get more to do. It's more arch. There's more energy to throw into it.

I'm not a broad comedy guy. I've been funny in movies, but I'm not a comedian. I'm an actor who's sometimes funny.

You become funny for a reason. I became an actor because that's who I was, nothing else - it was the only thing I was good at. You become a clown and you make people laugh because a) it protects you from everything, and b) it's this validating force in your life. And when you're 12 and 13 years old, you need validation and you're lost and you're kind of floating and you suffer from a severe learning disability and you're overweight and you have glasses... you become funny for a reason.

I got into a bad jag of movies that helped pay the rent and I thought would help further me along.

Something like 'Without a Paddle' does really well at the box office and I'm like, 'Oh, here we go.' In 'Without a Paddle' I'm the romantic lead - great! A comedy and that's what America wants. Then it did nothing for me and I went into kind-of a work abyss. I just didn't get another shot.

Every kid's dream is to be a great actor.

So much of Hollywood is about who the people you work with are.

Now, more then ever, we have the ability to make films for almost nothing and that's broken down all barriers of entry. I think it's a new golden age of film-making. With that, there needs to be the ability to recoup investment dollars, people need to make money.

How much do you have to pay someone to be in a George Clooney/Alexander Payne film? Nothing! Because everyone in the world wants to be a part of it. Therefore you pay nothing. And that continues until you become something they need... I'm not that kind of actor. I'm blue collar and very replaceable.

As a kid, as a young actor, I really wanted to pop. I wanted to create something different. I wanted to be Sean Penn, but I didn't have all the words to be Sean Penn. But I was trying to do something different in every role.

I always think that I'm the best thing in a lot of bad movies. Personally, I have to. I think that I like me as an actor.

Charlie Brown's good. I always had a little crush on that Lucy. I thought she was kind of a hot little brunette.

Hollywood used to be run by artists and people who loved artists... people who wanted to make movies for all the right reasons. For the love. The Art. To tell stories. Yes to make money as well, but it was about both. Now I feel, it's mostly about bottom line and making money.

A lot of times, as a clown, you find acting for a reason. It's a way to exercise yourself. If you're funny, you test yourself.

Character actors are becoming a thing of the past. They're just going by the wayside. They're just cutting through that caliber of acting.

Being onstage is like being rock star. Whereas if you're doing a movie, it's such a confined space. You know, you do a comedy, it's so hard, too, 'cause with a comedy, there's no vocal reaction, there's no energy that you get back that spurs you on to be funnier because everyone has to be quiet.

When you're making an independent film what you don't have in time and money you have to make up with creativity and diligence.

Every character lives in ever actor and if you're doing your job right, you're just accessing that part of your fantasy life. I can kill someone just as quickly as I can have sex with someone. You can switch that instinct, no matter what - you can pretend anything.

I was like, what the hell is my life coming to? I'm a trained actor! I've done Shakespeare and here I am having farting contests with an imaginary dog!

You may not have faith in my friend fate, But my friend fate has faith in you.

I like doing family films.