77 Quotes by Matthew Lillard

Something like ‘Without a Paddle’ does really well at the box office and I’m like, ‘Oh, here we go.’ In ‘Without a Paddle’ I’m the romantic lead – great! A comedy and that’s what America wants. Then it did nothing for me and I went into kind-of a work abyss. I just didn’t get another shot.

Charlie Brown’s good. I always had a little crush on that Lucy. I thought she was kind of a hot little brunette.

As a kid, as a young actor, I really wanted to pop. I wanted to create something different. I wanted to be Sean Penn, but I didn’t have all the words to be Sean Penn. But I was trying to do something different in every role.

Being onstage is like being rock star. Whereas if you’re doing a movie, it’s such a confined space. You know, you do a comedy, it’s so hard, too, ’cause with a comedy, there’s no vocal reaction, there’s no energy that you get back that spurs you on to be funnier because everyone has to be quiet.

Every kid’s dream is to be a great actor.

I fired a bunch of people and kind of went back to my roots. I fired my agent – I had this big, fancy agent and a big fancy manager and a big fancy lawyer – and I went back to my first agent and said, “I want to go back to just being an actor.”

I’ve really enjoyed the independent film world. I’ve had a blast. But, the reality is that I really want to make bigger movies. If I could make movies that carry great characters and great performances and great pathos, and can have an explosion or two, that would be fine with me.

I’m almost 40, so it’s an awkward time in my career. You kind of hope it comes through and, if not, I’ll be a waiter. Awesome.

You can inspire people to give you greatness, or you can micro-manage them into your own one specific kernel of an idea. To me, I think that when you inspire people to give their best, then you’re going to get the best result.