Last Friday night, a crowded theatre full of VFS Acting students (as well as a few Writing, Film, and Animation folks) were treated to an informal evening with Matthew Lillard, actor in over 40 films including Scream, Scooby-Doo, and Without a Paddle.

Matthew was smart, funny, inspiring, and disarmingly self-aware in terms of his own career. The key take-away message? Do your craft — don’t wait until someone offers you your “big break”. But the evening was filled with gems of advice and wisdom.

On The Industry

Matthew noted that as an actor, you can’t be everything to everybody. “Hollywood likes to put labels on you… You have to understand who you are in the industry, and market yourself in that way.” Early on, Matthew looked at himself and thought “I’m white bread, but I’m funny. I’m in between — not weird-enough looking to be the oddball best friend, and not good-looking enough to be Freddie Prinze, Jr.” (the first of a few friendly jokes at buddy Freddie Prinze’s expense). Matthew’s advice was to find where you fit in and pursue that niche.

On Success

The actor wasn’t shy about telling stories about the many times in his career he thought he’d “made it” — but he warns against ever thinking further success is going to come easily. “There’s nothing in this world that’s a given. There’s no ‘path’ to success.”

On Auditions

A firm believer in making strong choices, Matthew says he always goes off-book in an audition, because you can’t act with script pages in your hand. He also recommends doing something slightly different than the expected (i.e. what everyone else will be doing). You’ll stand out, and if you make a strong choice you are committing, offering something personal of yourself, and being authentic. Playing it safe means you’re protecting yourself from rejection… “If I don’t really commit, you can’t hurt me.” Instead, Matthew says, “Put your s&%t out there and own it.”

On Commitment

Big on commitment, Matthew emphasized that “you must commit over and over again” to your craft, and to making things happen. Actors should think of themselves as artists, with the goal always being to be creating. Even if that means making your own work. “Just do something,” he says, or else you’ll experience crippling paralysis. “You have to commit.” Matthew’s solution has been to always have theatre projects on the go.

On Scooby-Doo

Matthew was candid about his career, repeatedly joking about playing Shaggy in the Scooby-Doo series. When one fan in the audience noted his love for a lesser-known film, SLC Punk!, Matthew agreed that the film was the work he was most proud of. “But second is Scooby-Doo… because every scene [of mine] is with a character who’s not there.”

On Acting School

Perhaps the most valuable lesson of the night came from Matthew’s passion about collaborating with your fellow students, both in school and beyond. In school, he says, “You’re surrounded by other people doing exactly what you want to be doing.” He notes that his acting school colleagues are still some of his dearest friends, and they’re the people he has continued to collaborate with when directing and staging plays.

On VFS’s Acting Program

Matthew praised the Acting for Film & Television program’s emphasis on how to launch your career in the industry after graduation, calling it “light years ahead of other programs — Juilliard doesn’t have that, Carnegie Mellon doesn’t have it, Circle in the Square doesn’t have it.”

An Exclusive Advance Screening

After talking with students for more than an hour, and posing for photos and signing autographs, Matthew treated the crowd to an advance screening of his new film Spooner, which is soon starting the festival circuit.

The film, an endearing, quirky romance shot by a passionate young director with a crew of 11, over 18 days and for less than $100,000, had everyone in the theatre inspired to “just go make something”.