Since the end of this year marks the first quarter of the 21st century, it seems fitting that one of our most celebrated filmmakers, Quentin Tarantino, would weigh in on his favorite movies made thus far. However, when the Pulp Fiction filmmaker ranked the top ten movies of the century, it came with a lot of spitfire comments that have been going viral. One of his hot takes was at the expense of Scream and Scooby-Doo star Matthew Lillard, and the actor has now candidly responded.
Quentin Tarantino’s comments were made on The Bret Easton Ellis Podcast, as he called Paul Dano “the weakest fucking actor in SAG” while critiquing Dano’s performance in There Will Be Blood. Since then, a bunch of actors and filmmakers, including The Batman’s Matt Reeves, defended the actor. The Once Upon a Time in Hollywood director also claimed The Hunger Games “just ripped off” Battle Royale. Those have been the biggest headlines to come out of the podcast, but Matthew Lillard was also part of the conversation. As the actor shared:
Quentin Tarantino, this week, said he didn't like me as an actor.
In a video shared on TikTok by @little_spooks, Matthew Lillard brought up the director while in front of a crowd of people at a screening of Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 at GalaxyCon. Tarantino said on the podcast, “I don’t care for Matthew Lillard,” along with saying the same thing about Owen Wilson after his comments about Dano. As soon as he mentioned it, the audience booed in support of Lillard before he said this:
The point is, is that it hurts your feelings. It fucking sucks. He wouldn't say that to Tom Cruise. He wouldn't say that to someone who is a top-line actor in Hollywood. I'm very popular in this room; I am not very popular in Hollywood -- two totally different microcosms. Right? And so, you know, it's humbling, and it hurts.
Sure, Matthew Lillard could have chosen to brush off the comments and not mention it on the weekend of the premiere for his new horror movie. However, the actor bringing up what Tarantino said and getting honest about how much it “hurts” really brings some humanity to the conversations around Tarantino’s comments this week. As Lillard pointed out, he feels like it’s a comment that the director wouldn’t have made to bigger movie stars, and speaks to him being “not very popular in Hollywood.”
Obviously, Matthew Lillard has loads of fans of his movies, and was among a sea of them as he brought up the comments. But, as he pointed out, Tarantino’s words implied that there’s a lack of respect toward him as an actor in comparison to more high-profile names like Tom Cruise, for example.
Hurtful words aside, Matthew Lillard’s latest movie, Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, is set to make a lot of money this weekend with a record opening (per Variety). Lillard is also returning to the Scream franchise for the seventh movie, which coming out on February 27, 2026, much to the credit of his character being a fan-favorite across the past 30 years. Tarantino might not care for him but, clearly, a lot of moviegoers most certainly do.
