DETROIT — Matthew Lillard is having a moment, and no one's more excited about it than him.

"I'm loving every f—ing second of it," says Lillard, on the phone earlier this month from his home in Los Angeles.

The actor, who was born in Lansing and spent his early years in Brighton — his family moved to Orange County, California, by the time he was 10 — has a number of irons in the fire.

He made an appearance in this year's "The Life of Chuck," and he reprises his role as madman villain William Afton in next month's anticipated blockbuster "Five Nights at Freddy's 2." Next year, he'll be seen in Season 2 of Marvel's "Daredevil: Born Again," and he returns to the "Scream" franchise for the first time since the 1996 original in February's "Scream 7." In addition, he recently wrapped filming on Mike Flanagan's upcoming "Carrie" miniseries, and he just filmed on "Behemoth!", the latest film from "Michael Clayton" and "Andor" creator Tony Gilroy.

For the 55-year-old, it's a resurgence he never thought he'd experience. He's not sure why it's happening now, but he thinks "Scooby Doo" — the series he once feared might spell the end of his acting career — could have a little something to do with it.

"I have theories that all those years those poor kids who were being toted around in an Astro van and the DVD in the back — which is right around the time DVDs ended — were 'Scooby Doo' 1 and 2. And so they were stuck watching those films a million times and somehow, in their subconscious, they fell in love with Matthew Lillard," he says. "And so now, all those kids are in power in Hollywood, and they're like, 'Oh, what about Matthew Lillard?' So there's some of that."

He also thinks it might have something to do with the fact that he never quite grabbed the spotlight the first time around.

"When 'Scream' first came out, everyone was really excited about Skeet (Ulrich), and everyone was really excited about Neve (Campbell), and all of that was right. But Matthew Lillard was not the thing that they were interested in as much as those other shiny things," he says. "Right now, for whatever reason, it feels like the geek shall inherit the Earth. I'm having a moment. It will most certainly wane, but while it's here, I'm stepping on every set with 35 years of wisdom packed into my aging body.

"As a kid, I just wanted to be number one on the call sheet every time. I wanted to be Freddie Prinze Jr., I wanted to be Matt Damon, I wanted to be Ben Affleck. And I just never got the shot," he says. "It just never came my way, and that sort of leaves you with, like, a sadness. I used to have all kinds of jealousy. And the reality is, at this point, I'm just happy to have the job and I love the work, and I think I'm better suited at this stage in my life than I was as a kid to do good work. It's been fun."

Always an outcast

Growing up in Brighton, Lillard recalls riding bikes all day until dark, racing frogs and having crabapple fights with his best buds, whose nicknames were Guy Guy and Dookie. His mother came from a big family, and he says he grew up "learning to count two through ace" because playing card games like Euchre was the language of his aunts and uncles.

"Star Wars" came out when he was 7, and he recalls spending most of his time playing with Luke Skywalker and Han Solo action figures in the woods behind his family's backyard. That obsession with "Star Wars" toys — which he says lasted an embarrassingly long time, well past the point it should have — fueled his imagination and his love of storytelling.

By the time he was a middle schooler in Tustin, California, he found acting and would participate in local acting contests, performing monologues and musical scenes on the weekends.

He was never the cool kid. "I have been an outsider my entire life," he says, saying he was constantly picked on and called names by his classmates for being an actor.

But he stuck with it through high school and into junior college, and then started his own theater company — not with the goal of becoming famous, but because acting was what he loved and was where he excelled. (His freshman year at college, he says he took all acting classes and one history class, and wound up flunking history because he spent all his time in the theater department.)

Lillard, who stands 6-foot-4, says he had no career path but was willing to work hard, and while studying at Circle in the Square Theatre & School in New York, he auditioned for "Serial Mom," which starred Kathleen Turner and was directed by iconoclastic filmmaker John Waters. He showed up to the audition long-haired and riding a skateboard, which Waters took notice of, and he ended up getting the job. That led to a slew of other roles, and he still credits Waters with giving him his break.

Waters says he saw right away that Lillard was going to make it in Hollywood.

"Instantly we knew that he was great and that he'd have a career. It was obvious from the first reading he ever did for me," says the filmmaker, on the phone last week. "He just owned the part and he made it funny without ever winking to the audience, which is the thing that never gets you a job in my movie, because hopefully the words are funny, we don't have to tell them it's funny. You have to say it like you're dead serious."

Waters credits his casting directors Paula Herold and Pat Moran with bringing Lillard to him. He says he's stayed friends with the actor through the years and is pleased he's been making movies for more than 30 years.

"I'm happy for everybody that I know who's had success in show business, because it's hard to get," says Waters.

Early in his career, Lillard says he's guilty of going egregiously over-the-top in his performances; "left to my own devices, I would chew scenery in every film I was ever in," he says. "Go back and watch 'Hackers' and it's like, 'what the f--- are you doing, dude?' Like, it's not about you, you are not the final girl, so get your s— together, tighten that thing up, and let's go."

But that bombastic style fit perfectly in "Scream," Wes Craven's self-aware post-modern slasher, where Lillard plays Stu Macher, one of the film's two villains, who reveal themselves during the film's wild conclusion. Even if at other times his performances were pushing too far, "at that moment, in that scenario, in that sort of genre-bending film, that last sequence in the film, it worked," Lillard says. "For whatever Wes Craven and (screenwriter) Kevin Williamson saw, they just wanted that energy, and it was effective."

"Scream" led to a string of films where he was often playing buddy to Prinze Jr., including "She's All That," "Wing Commander" and "Summer Catch." Then came 2002's "Scooby-Doo" and its 2004 sequel, "Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed," which cast Lillard as Shaggy, Scooby's bumbling pal.

But when the second film underperformed compared to its predecessor, earning almost $100 million less at the worldwide box office, Lillard's career started cooling off. He wasn't sure it would heat up again.

Connecting with fans

Through the '00s and into the '10s, Lillard appeared in a string of forgettable movies with titles like "Endless Bummer" and "The Pool Boys," although he did fortify his relationship with "Scooby Doo," voicing Shaggy through dozens of animated movies, TV specials and TV series.

He also started regularly appearing on the convention circuit, oftentimes alongside his "Scream" co-stars Skeet Ulrich and Jamie Kennedy. (The three of them share a manager.) Lillard found the con community to be lucrative financially and a positive way to interact with fans, once he figured out the lay of the land.

"The very first time I ever did a convention, I had this epiphany. I said everyone that comes in, I'm going to shake their hand, I'm going to hug them, I'm going to be a f—ing human, and the reality is that the thing I've found — and I think this essential to how I approach these weekends — is that you can, in a matter of moments, affect and/or change a person's life by making them feel seen," he says.

"I value deeply kids who are lost, obese kids, kids on the spectrum, somebody with a physical difference. I have a soft spot in my heart for the LGBTQ community. So if I find somebody that I can make feel seen in a matter of one minute, two minutes, three minutes, I do not shy away from that moment," he says. "And I do think that if you approach everyone who comes to your table as an opportunity to have a cool, quick conversation, or give someone a hug or a handshake or whatever, the transaction becomes way less about money and way more about human connection, and making an impact. I think you can save a life in less than 30 seconds if you're available to honor that moment."

Lillard never stopped working, but his career started clicking again when he appeared in "Twin Peaks: The Return" in 2017. He also circled back to his '90s years by appearing as the school principal in "He's All That," the 2021 remake of "She's All That."

In addition to conventions, Lillard is also the co-founder of Find Familiar Spirits, which produces whiskey tied to fan experiences — including a line inspired by Dungeons & Dragons, and a collab with metal/ horror rockers Ice Nine Kills — and he has three children with his wife of 25 years, Heather.

He says life these days is "bananas," a high point of what has been an up-and-down ride. He says the one constant is his love of his craft and his willingness to work hard, which is how everything has come into focus.

"I just ended up falling into opportunities that led to other opportunities, and one thing led to another, my entire life," he says. "I watch kids today, I watch my own kids, and you see all these people trying to make a path or trying to figure out how to get from point A to point B, and nine times out of 10 you have to just keep doing the s— you love, and opportunities will show up. If you can work hard, and you keep chasing a singular thing, opportunities will present themselves."

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