Matthew Lillard says he thought he would 'never work again' after starring in Scooby-Doo sequel

Plenty of actors have appeared as or voiced the beloved Scooby-Doo character Shaggy, but none come to mind quite as fast as Matthew Lillard.

Lillard starred as Shaggy in Scooby-Doo (2002) and Scooby-Doo: Monsters Unleashed (2004).

After the immense success of the first film, Lillard signed on to do a sequel, thinking that it would be the film to skyrocket him to stardom, but he was sadly mistaken.

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Matthew Lillard starred as Shaggy in 2002 and 2004 Scooby-Doo films. (Warner Bros. Ent)

Scooby-Doo: Monsters Unleashed was Lillard's biggest pay day yet, but ultimately, the movie was a flop.

"I thought I'd be No. 1 on the call sheet for the next 10 years of movies," Lillard recently told Business Insider.

"And the reality was the exact opposite happened."

Not only was the planned third installment in the series canned by Warner Bros, but Lillard's career also came to a halt forcing him to look at what he really wanted to do with his career.

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"I've gone through good patches and bad patches. I've been irrelevant and thought I was never going to work again," he said.

Lillard shared that for while, he got caught up in what roles he was getting that could make him famous.

"I was going to do Dancing With the Stars. And I was like, if I do Dancing With the Stars, I'll never win an Academy Award," he explained.

"If I do Dancing With the Stars, I'll be famous and not a great actor, and I really just wanted to be a great actor. I said [to my agent], 'I just want to be an actor. I just want to be in movies. I want to reset my expectations'."

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He says the second movie flopping almost destroyed his career. (Warner Bros)

But over the years, Lillard said he's come to realise that one of the most important things is to separate his identity from his career. 

"One of the great moments in my life is understanding that I have power outside of just being an actor," he said.

"That, to me, has been way more satisfying than getting a part in a movie."

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