Matthew Lillard has been a horror-movie killer and a Saturday-morning icon, and he has spent three decades turning up in roles audiences remember long after the credits roll. Yet the actor says a familiar face is no guarantee that the work comes looking for him.

Lillard, having spent the majority of his 56 years working in Hollywood, revealed why work for him still remains scarce.

Hollywood likes to say it values art, but the people who work inside it often tell a different story. Matthew Lillard's complaint comes down to feeling undervalued. Asked on the I've Never Said This Before podcast whether he feels valued by Hollywood, the actor, who has spent decades in the industry, pointed to what the business looks for in its leading men.

"But I think what Hollywood looks for is — they look for a movie star. They look for dashing," Lillard explained said.

Matthew Lillard's confession on the I've Never Said This Before would not be the first of its kind. However, age seems to have brought him a sense of closure, and he does not fret over always being viewed as a supporting actor. 

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While pigeonholing him may be one aspect of it, Lillard was not long ago met with disrespect from Hollywood through one of its biggest directors.

As 2025 wrapped up, Quentin Tarantino made a charged statement on The Bret Easton Ellis Podcast that could only be wrapped up in a box labeled unwarranted. While speaking about Paul Dano, the director went on to list a few actors which he claimed to not care for.

" I’m saying he’s giving a non-entity [performance]. I don’t care for him. I don’t care for Owen Wilson, I don’t care for Matthew Lillard.” Tarantino said on the podcast.

The backlash following these comments was unlike anything else for Matthew Lillard, who witnessed in full swing just how much he meant to so many people. With everyone from James Gunn to George Clooney coming out in Lillard's defence, the actor learned that the audience and his peers value him far more than the industry's casting machine ever shows.

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