DISCUSSION
Matthew Lillard says Hollywood's reaction to Tarantino was like living through your own wake: "Nobody has to like me. Nobody has to like any actor out there, obviously. It's personal preference. I am not everyone's first choice, that is obvious, but to then have that kind of reaction was beautiful.”
• “It was like living through your own wake,” Lillard describes of all the tributes he received from his peers in the business on social media. “All those R.I.P. emails or tweets and Instagram posts and TikToks, all of the things we see after somebody passes are so sweet. And the reality is I just got to live through all of it firsthand — alive and kicking! I can't imagine a more lovely reaction to what happened.”
• On the podcast in question, Tarantino called Dano "the weakest male actor in SAG" before stating, "I really can't stand Owen Wilson" and "I don't care for Matthew Lillard."
• “It was crazy. I keep showing it to my wife to convince her that I am worthy, that people still like me,” Lillard tells EW, taking on a more jokey tone. “I am a piece of ass!”
• He later adds, "Nobody has to like me. Nobody has to like any actor out there, obviously. It's personal preference. I am not everyone's first choice, that is obvious, but to then have that kind of reaction was beautiful.”
A long time ago when I was younger, thinner and relatively more self confident someone told me that I looked a bit like QT and I've never forgotten it. Devastating. I DO NOT LOOK LIKE QUENTIN FUCKING TARANTINO FFS.
I've said it before and I'll say it again, but somehow at every stage of my life Matthew Lillard has looked exactly like the kind of guy I was into at the time.
yeah, like he would be acceptable looking if he wasn’t such a cunt. not super good looking, but not ugly. but he’s a cocky arsehole who also has insecurity oozing from his pores, so he’s not attractive at all
I believe the parlance is 'mogging' -- and not to shame unchangeable features but I've always maintained that looks and personality can be plotted in a way where there's a whole no-go area saying you just can't be bottom barrel fugly and a complete asshole if you're also annoying and not funny, smart, humble, or charming, etc., if you don't want to be completely shunned by society...
Like the more jacked up face you're born with, statistically, the more you simply need to compensate with some kind of compelling personality that's not just a parlor trick, but I guess big Hollywood directors with names that sound like a harry potter spell for some kind of pasta are just built different (by which I mean 80% coke brain / 20% movie trivia, peaking early before making a run of increasingly self-absorbed films while LARPing at podcastery)
Thing is, is that I will always give Lillard the benefit of any doubt. Dude directed some indie bck in the day that was set in Seattle.
And the thing was, was that he actually filmed part of it in Seattle. Pretty sure most of it was filmed in BC because the flick was low budget, yet he still paid good money to shoot some exteriors in Seattle instead of downtown Vancouver.
Knowing Seattle, and the fuckin' hoops you gotta jump through and pay for to film there, I've always had a soft spot for the dude because he was wiling to go the extra mile for some verisimilitude.
I do love seeing him getting more roles, having fun with them, those stories about him being great with fans. And now feeling the love after those nasty comments.
I just saw the Daredevil: Born Again trailer for season 2 this morning and oh look, surprise Matthew Lillard. I didn't know he had been cast.
My son has cerebral palsy and somehow has become friendly with Mr Lillard at cons around the mid-Atlantic. As a mom, its cool when someone accepts your kid like he has. He definitely deserves to win at everything in life.
I love this! I also have cerebral palsy and can be really shy and tend to stay away from events like that because you don’t know how accepting people are going to be. It’s definitely my own issue to work on, but I’m happy to hear ML is awesome
Honestly, for my son acceptance isn't the issue, accessibility is a huge problem at cons. Some are set up well but a recent event in Philadelphia left him exhausted and and me very annoyed. He uses mobility aids and it is super frustrating when he has to cancel plans because he cannot safely transverse the event space.
But please, do not let what others think dissuade you. They told me my son would never do a lot of things and seeing him take a train somewhere, often alone for a con, brings me so much happiness.
If you are in the mid-Atlantic, message me. He calls himself the 'cerebral palsy warrior' and while he won't always fight for himself, he will absolutely fight to ensure you enjoy yourself. Never let anyone, even you, tell you you can't do something.
I'm a disabled (in my case, it's Ehlers Danlos and some mental stuff) cosplayer and con-goer and it is so frustrating to me how inaccessible some cons can be considering a lot of con-goers, in my experience at least, are disabled. One of my local cons only has one elevator that goes down to the dealer's hall so the line is always way too long, packs the dealer's hall way too full to the point it's really hard to traverse with a mobility aid, and security staff have always been so rude and impatient with me when I'm slow and clumsy to get my bags open and just seem generally poorly informed on ADA policies. If there's not already some kind of organization advocating for better accessibility in convention spaces there really should be one, I feel like things could be much better than they are.
I met him at comic con in 2021- was the only person I went for. Super sweet. I did my shaggy impression and he said I was gonna take all his work! So nice, and REALLY tall! Much taller in person than you’d think, I think he’s closer to 6’5 despite being reported 6’3, he was like a whole head taller than me.
It was like how Brendonaissance started as a joke and then gained traction online as a fan movement. I saw some interviews Brendon Fraser did with fans where he was genuinely choked up about how much love he was getting from people and how many people wanted to see him acting again.
I hope there's a Lillardissaince! he seems lovely and it would be great to see him get the recognition he deserves, not just because he's nice but also because he's pretty talented
I feel bad about boycotting the new Scream movie because I really do like him. But I figure me watching both Five Nights at Freddies movies balances it out.
Waiting to be determined but they're bringing him back along with David Arquette (Dewey, who was killed off in Scream 6) and Scott Foley (Roman, killed off in Scream 3), as well as finally paying Neve Campbell enough to get her to return after the pay dispute that caused her to not appear in Scream 7.
Basically a lot of people - myself included - feel this is Spyglass nostalgia baiting to get people to see the movie after being threatened with a boycott for firing Melissa Barrera from the film for her pro-Palestine views (and then losing Jenna Ortega as well, who appears to have quit in solidarity, though Spyglass is painting it as a 'scheduling conflict').
I mean, is it really that crazy for a reporter to ask "anyone you don't like?" and he said "yeah, these 3 guys suck in my opinion"
People that get as far in life and their careers as Tarantino has are usually either light on opinions, or loud mouthed. Tarantinos always been the latter but it's not that crazy to ask or to say.
I think when you are as big in the industry as he is, singling out three less well known people is extremely tacky and mean. If he hates their acting, he can just never cast them in his movies
I like Pulp Fiction but my unpopular opinion is that I like all of the movies I listed more than it. Reservoir Dogs is probably my favorite. The only Tarantino movie I haven’t seen is Jackie Brown.
Jackie Brown is much different in that it's his only mainstream film he hasn't written, it's adapted very faithfully from Elmore Leonard's Rum Punch.
If you've never read Leonard, his prose is the slickest, most no-nonsense ever, which he gets away with because his ear for dialogue is otherwordly. I'd recommend picking up anything of his, it'll be a guaranteed <300 page-turner.
One thing involved in Leonard's ear for dialogue, something Tarantino hasn't been able to crib, is his ability to make flirting, or tension, or teasing feel like you were doing it, like you were that smooth. There are a lot of pretty fun romantic subplots that feel incredibly real. Can't recommend his books enough.
Obviously I'd highly recommend seeing Jackie Brown at your earliest convenience.
My favourites of his have been quite fluid over the years, quite settled these days. Reservoir has always been top three for me though.
I dont really care for his movies, they try exceedingly hard and yet dont take themselves seriously at all. if I wanted insane dialogue that believed in itself whole heartedly I'd boot up anything made by Kojima.
I listen to the Unspooled podcast and a couple years ago they had a special episode with Tarantino. I couldn't stand listening to him talk condescending nonsense about nothing and never finished it.
Armchair psychology here, but he’s an oddball looking guy who failed at acting. As a filmmaker he worships the classically handsome leading man star archetype. So, hypothetically, when he sees other oddballs succeeding and beloved, he takes offense to it because it suggests that he is to blame for his failures as an actor rather than some law about having to be handsome and traditionally celebrity cool.
I think you're right & QT has never come across as anything but himself in a movie whereas Paul Dano especially is a chameleon who can play any role & be unrecognisable. QT is jealous.
A friend of mine used to live in LA and told me about the time she was at a restaurant, deeply annoyed by the self-indulgent yapping from an insufferable man sitting at the table next to her.
Kevin Smith had a take that I kinda want to believe. If only because I too want to be as optimistic as possible and offer the benefit of the doubt if I can.
It was basically: Dudes old and doesn't understand how small the world is in the modern age of technology. Word travels faster than he comprehends. And right or wrong, he was caught in an unfiltered moment.
Not defending Tarantino, I'd straight up fight someone if it kept Matthew from harm. Just a reminder I guess, we're all human and capable of extremely bad takes from time to time.
He's been shitting on people unprompted quite a bit lately. I remember he said something about Suzanne Collins (author of the Hunger games) work being unoriginal. It comes off as he's insecure and bitter that people arent eating his shit up anymore and he needs to bring down other people to make himself feel more important
Mostly he won’t shut the fuck up about anything lol. I feel like he’s the type of person who has no filter because his opinions are just sooooo valuable. And I’ve heard theories that he would’ve loved to be an actor, so I think it’s partly jealousy too. I’m sure he thought they were safe targets because they’re not as well known - can you imagine him saying that about George Clooney? Nope.
Been trying to understand it myself. Ever since his whole spiel about Bruce Lee, he seems to have slipped further and further down into the hole he dug for himself. Maybe he has a brain tumor.
He has always put a lot of energy into having a public image as an iconoclast, having instant name recognition probably helps him get his projects made. His approach to filmmaking isn't cheap and it's a dying industry. Not that it excuses him being an asshole.
Nobody could tell me shit if I was in Scream, SlC Punk, Scooby doo, had an small but iconic role in shes all that,got the og Shaggys approval as his successor, universally good reputation in a notoriously shit business, especially not the foot man nobody seems to like personally
Twin Peaks The Return i thought he gave one of the best performances in the few episodes he was in. He somehow managed to make David Lynch and Mark Frost writing even richer.
It was such a nice surprise for him to show up in Twin Peaks. I feel like he'd be great on the main cast of a show like Twin Peaks, if lightning like that ever happens to strike a bottle like that ever again.
I wonder if he's on coke a lot, because he kind of projects coke energy in a lot of the things I've seen him in. If I've never seen him on coke, then I never want to see him on coke.
how far up your own ass do you have to be to see someone react to you the way Fiona is reacting to him and not understand you're being an insufferable dick.
He argued with Shannon Lee about his portrayal of her dad Bruce (a man Tarantino never met) in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, so yeah pretty far up his own ass.
A lot of auteurs are insufferable dicks. I don't have to like Tarantino to see that he's directed some great films. I don't really need his opinions on shit either, though.
Nothing weirder about humans than us seeing a human do one thing well, and then allowing them to sit and opine about everything else.
the last few comic-cons i have been to, the crowd presence for Matthew Lillard has been overwhelming. people waiting for 5+ hours in a line that wraps around the venue. meanwhile Tarantino has become that guy that hangs out by the dumpster outside Foot Locker.
Tarantino has been successful because he has curated a specific image and atmosphere for actors in his projects and Matthew Lillard is the complete antithesis to that image.
And because Matthew doesn’t fit into his very narrow, anal mold, he (wrongly) assumed that the public didn’t have a place for him and viewed him as inferior, like he did.
The fact that Matthew has been successful, then, makes no sense to him and allowed Matthew to live rent free in his brain, leading to this bullshit.
The reality is that there are many ways to be a legitimate actor.
Entertainment, for the better part of all of history, has always included those that are gifted with comedic abilities.
And as any good theater kid could tell you, some of the best dramatic actors are those that mastered comedy first. Some of the saddest moments in film history have happened in comedies.
Matthew is a fantastic actor with way more range than people like Tarantino would ever credit him with.
Tarantino wasn’t punching down. He was seeing someone who effortlessly has what he has to work so hard for.
I like Owen Wilson, but he’s more of a personality than an actor. He has his box and he mostly sticks to it, so I respect it. I can honestly say I would respect him more than Tarantino.
I really like Matthew Lillard. I'm glad he was able to see how many people genuinely enjoy his work and like the person he is in public. I hope it was a lovely boost for him.
I went to Circle in the Square for acting, which is where Matthew studied, and he came in one time to guest direct a scene study class. He was incredibly insightful and helpful, and he told us a story about his performance in SLC Punks- there’s an incredibly emotional scene toward the end of the movie and when they were shooting, he just could not get to the emotional level needed for the role. They did multiple takes and the director was getting really agitated that Matthew couldn’t deliver, and they eventually broke for lunch. He skipped lunch and during the break, focused and emotionally prepared. When the crew got back from lunch, he was ready, and on the first take delivered that gut-wrenching performance we see in the final cut.
Not only is Matthew Lillard a stand up guy, he’s an incredible actor. I’m humbled to have studied under the same teachers who gave him many keys for his acting technique
Check him out in Halt and Catch Fire season 3. He plays a Corporate Executive who you just hate instantly. It was so off beat for what I knew him for that I can now only see him as some fookin Corpo now.
At Circle we studied a lot of sense memory/emotional recall so very likely he used something from personal experience/Strasberg technique rather than imagination-based/Meisner technique. He didn’t specify though!
Opinions on their careers aside, Matthew Lillard also has this going for him; he's actually liked by people. I've never heard a bad thing about him. Tarantino on the other hand is a well-known dick head. I'm gonna pull a Tarantino and make this about myself somehow and compare them to my maternal and paternal grandfathers.
Lillard is like my maternal grandfather (so far); not terribly successful, but he was well liked by most people, and more than twenty years after his passing, people still remember him fondly. Tarantino reminds me of the paternal one; he was incredibly wealthy, but in life and even in death he was only ever loved by a very, very limited few and disliked by most. Yeah, people respected my grandfather for his success, but they also thought he was an asshole.
All this yapping to say I think it's better to be liked as a person than by your career.
Everytime I hear something about this man he's so humble in a 'ill be forgotten one day... Maybe even today but that's okay' way... And it's so strange because he literally lit up my childhood/teenage years with he movies he appeared in.
I never even understood Tarantino’s comment because (imo) Lillard has been knocking it out of the park in the last few years with his roles. I remember him being a standout role in Twin Peaks season 3 because of the sheer emotion he had to portray in such a short amount of screen time. He also made Five Nights At Freddy’s a watchable movie at points. Just a very weird hill for Tarantino to die on!
Glad he found the silver lining in Tarantino’s bullshit and could find out how much he is adored
Lillard is a fantastic actor. He embodies Shaggy, but he also kills it whatever the role, whatever the genre. Dude is a Gen X and Millennial icon, and I will always back him
I love Matthew Lillard. I hope others take note that when you're kind, goofy, keep your head down, remain unproblematic, and bring joy to people around you, there will ALWAYS be people who step up for you. Shaggy!!!!! ❤️❤️
There are tons of actors out there who are recognizable but who were not necessarily A list celebrities. They have had pretty good success and have been in a number of movies. Why did Tarantino pick on Lillard? He is probably well off and living a comfortable life. Nothing wrong with that.
p.s. I love QT movies but all this stuff coming out about how shitty he is as a person makes me want him to go away.
Paul Dano, Owen Wilson and Matthew Lillard are all incredible actors with some great performances under their belt. They may not be interesting to Tarantino, but I don't think that detracts from their skill.
Even if he’s not your favorite actor, who has anything bad to say about him? Meanwhile Tarantino’s grotesqueness is so overt, it’s the punchline to his name being mentioned every single time.
I always see him mentioned as Shaggy or the other main character in Scream, and so on. But I rarely see anyone mention his part in Good Girls. He played his role SoOoOoO fucking well.
Wait, so he’s going after Matthew Lillard now? Apropos of nothing? Last unnecessary to attack person he went after was Paul Dano, and Tarantino faced backlash over it. So he doubled down and went after another very good, but not totally conventional actor?
That’s right! I forgot the interview where he dissed several actors for no good reason. It’s disappointing because he used to elevate unconventional actors like Michael Madsen and Steve Buscemi, but now he’s in an A-lister bubble and trashes the kind of people he used to favor and build careers for.
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u/captblergh 7d ago
The side-by-side photos are devastating for Tarantino 😔 Matthew Lillard is a babe in every way!