Matthew Lillard on “Five Nights at Freddy's” success and hopes for 'a bunch' more sequels

The "Scream" and "Scooby-Doo" alum says he is "pretty thrilled right now being a part of a new franchise."

Warning: This article contains spoilers for the film Five Nights at Freddy's.

In the decades since Matthew Lillard's breakthrough performance as the murderous Stu Macher in the 1996 horror classic Scream, he has remained one of Hollywood's most regularly employed actors with credits ranging from the Scooby-Doo franchise to Twin Peaks: The Return. Even so, some time had passed since Lillard appeared in a hit film prior to the release of this year's video game adaptation and box office sensation Five Nights at Freddy's. Enough time, in fact, for Lillard to have forgotten that going to see your own successful film on its opening weekend in a public theater will inevitably provoke something of a rumpus.

"Look, nobody really cares that you’re an actor unless you’re in a big hit movie and in the theater to see your movie," he tells EW, laughing. "It was not well thought out! I went late Sunday on opening weekend [with] my kids. They haven’t seen me in a movie in a movie theater in a very, very long time, unless it’s a retrospective or a festival or whatever. We got there early to get seats and so I was standing out like a sore thumb. But it was very sweet. The audience responded in an incredible way, there was a big applause at the end, and as they walked out everyone was saying congratulations. It was very sweet and my kids were perfectly mortified, which is exactly what you want."

Five Nights at Freddy's stars Josh Hutcherson as a cash-strapped security guard who Lillard's villainous William Afton hires to work the night shift at a pizza parlor full of haunted animatronic mascots. The actor recalls that when he first met director Emma Tammi, she told him his character was "the Voldemort of this universe." He thought that was pretty sexy.

Lillard describes costar Hutcherson as the sweetest guy and recalls how he once met him years prior. "He's been acting since he was [a child]. In fact, he showed me a picture of him and I meeting when he was, like, 7 years old on the set of Scooby-Doo 2," Lillard says. "His manager showed him to the set and introduced him around. So it was really sweet and his work is fantastic."

The actor is less enamored with the work ethic of the film's animatronic creations, which were designed by the Jim Henson Company. Lillard describes shooting the scenes that featured Freddy Fazbear and his friends as "painfully slow."

"The old adage is 'don’t work with children or puppies.' Now it’s 'don’t work with children, puppies, or animatronics,'" he says. "Look, the Jim Henson crew and the things that they were able to pull off are incredible — there’s no visual effects, everything is there in person. It’s labor intensive, [but] it was fantastic to work in a world that’s so enveloped. The pizza parlor was there, the animatronics were there, so you’re not pretending on the same level that you are if you’re working on a Star Wars or something."

Having returned to the world of hit horror movies, Lillard is keen to stay awhile. The actor says, "I’m pretty thrilled right now being a part of a new franchise. I’m hoping that we get to do a bunch of these and, if I’m the Voldermort, that means I’ll always be in it!"

Lillard's upcoming projects include one that is, at the very least, horror adjacent. He recently shot a role in the upcoming movie version of Stephen King's genre-hopping novella The Life of Chuck, which details the story of the titular character in reverse. The film is directed by Mike Flanagan, who previously brought us the King film adaptations Doctor Sleep and Gerald's Game, as well as the TV shows The Haunting of Hill House, Midnight Mass, and the recent The Fall of the House of Usher.

"He and I were introduced by a mutual friend, Elan Gale, who’s actually the producer of the movie," Lillard says. "We all got lunch this year and started hanging out, and shooting emails back and forth about Dungeons & Dragons. He invited me to come down and play for a day on the movie. I was thrilled to be a part of his world. I think what he’s doing right now is as exciting as anything we have in television. I think Midnight Mass is incredible, I think House is fantastic. I told him, 'I’ll do anything you ask, because I want to be in your world.' I just think he’s thrilling."

Five Nights at Freddy’s is available now on Digital, 4K UHD, Blu-ray, and DVD from Universal Home Entertainment.

Want more movie news? Sign up for Entertainment Weekly's free newsletter to get the latest trailers, celebrity interviews, film reviews, and more.

Related content:

• Jason Blum is taking possession of Halloween with The Exorcist: Believer and Five Nights at Freddy's

• Ghost children are possessing giant robots in Five Nights at Freddy's trailer
  

Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly.