Matthew Lillard worries he will never win an Oscar if he competes on 'Dancing with the Stars'.
Matthew Lillard's DWTS fears
The 54-year-old actor was asked to take part in the reality TV show in 2004 after 'Scooby Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed' flopped at the box office but he turned it down because he wanted to be seen as a serious actor.
He told Business Insider: "I was going to do 'Dancing with the Stars'. And I was like, if I do 'Dancing with the Stars', I’ll never win an Academy Award. If I do 'Dancing With the Stars', I’ll be famous and not a great actor, and I really just wanted to be a great actor."
He admitted 'Scooby Doo 2' flopping was a huge surprise as he thought it would set him up for a long-lasting career at the top of the Hollywood A-List.
He said: "I thought I’d be number one on the call sheet for the next 10 years of movies. And the reality was, the exact opposite happened.
“I was caught up in the parts I was getting, I was caught up in this drive to be quote-unquote famous. I’ve gone through good patches and bad patches. I’ve been irrelevant and thought I was never going to work again.”
Meanwhile, Matthew previously admitted that 'Scream' - in which he portrayed Stu Macher - didn't have the same transformative effect for him compared to leading actors such as David Arquette and Neve Campbell.
Speaking to Collider, Matthew said: "It changed a lot of people's trajectory. It did not change mine. It was not a moment in any way, shape or form where all of a sudden I got any different attention. Period.
"And that really sort of solidified for me, now looking back, I was like, 'Oh, I was destined to be this blue-collar actor', which is great, and I like my career. Don't get me wrong. If you'd given me my career coming in, I'd be like, 'You've gotta be kidding me. That's incredible.'
"But, I really wanted to be the number one on the call sheet in every movie I've ever done. It just never went that way. And so this idea of a breakout role, this idea of changing trajectory, sure, it made me more relevant to some capacity, but in those early days of 'Scream', it didn't open up opportunities."