Why Scream Cast Matthew Lillard As Stu After He Auditioned For Billy Loomis

In case you haven't seen "Scream" — which came out in 1996, so you've had a minute to check it out — I'm about to tell you exactly who the two masked killers in the first film are, and how one of the performers actually auditioned for the other role. To speak more clearly, Matthew Lillard, who ended up playing Stu Macher in Wes Craven's horror classic, originally auditioned to play Billy Loomis, the swoon-worthy boyfriend of the movie's protagonist, Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell); ultimately, the role of Billy went to Skeet Ulrich.

The two actors discussed this exact shake-up, speaking to Entertainment Weekly in December 2021 for an oral history of the beloved film, which ultimately spawned a massive franchise. (I should actually note that the oral history is about a scene where Jamie Kennedy's horror fan Randy Meeks explains the "rules" of horror movies, but it's because of brilliant moments like this that the "Scream" franchise came into being, honestly.) As Lillard recalls, his audition for Billy Loomis wasn't exactly great. "I auditioned, and they said, 'You're not the right guy to make out with Neve Campbell the entire time; why don't you come back and come in for the best friend?'" Lillard revealed. "They made a mistake casting Skeet over me, that's for sure!" he joked.

Ulrich, who also spoke to the outlet, laughed at Lillard's response. "Oh my goodness," he said, apparently chuckling before saying he'd get in touch with Lillard. "I'll have a chat with Matt about that," Ulrich continued. "I think he should let that go by now."

Now that the "Scream 7" trailer is officially out, we know without any shadow of a doubt that Stu Macher is coming back to torment Sidney once again. (As a reminder, Stu and Billy murder Sidney's mother before the events of "Scream" because she had an affair with Billy's father and broke up his family; Stu doesn't really have a motive, per se, but appears to just be a sociopath who's more than happy to help Billy murder a bunch of their classmates and their principal, played by Henry Winkler.) So, how is Stu, who is dead — like, Sidney drops a television on his head that electrocutes him dead — coming back? As Matthew Lillard exclusively told Us Magazine, he has some ideas.

"I was giddy. I was freaking out," Lillard first said of coming back to the franchise that helped make him famous before ruminating on the thought that maybe, just maybe, Stu survived Sidney's attack. "I had been sort of tongue-in-cheek pushing the fact that Stu's still alive, he went to prison," Lillard continued. "Like, I'll go get superhero jacked like [I've] been in prison for the last 20 years. And, you know, the Radio Silence [Productions] guys left a lot of breadcrumbs in the movies that Stu was still out there." (For instance, Lillard had a voice cameo in "Scream" (2022), the fifth installment, inspiring fans to believe he wasn't dead.) Still, returning to a franchise after decades has to be intimidating, and Lillard touched on that, too.

Matthew Lillard had some fun with Kevin Williamson — who wrote the first film, "Scream 2," and "Scream 4," and will direct the forthcoming "Scream 7" — when he finally got a call letting him know that Stu Macher will somehow kill again. "When I got [Kevin] on the phone that day, I was like, 'You're such a jerk. You said I was never coming back,'" Lillard said before revealing that Williamson had a pretty good reason for not telling Lillard anything concrete. "He was like, 'Yeah, because you kept arguing to come back, and I was trying to distract everyone,'" Lillard said.

Lillard, for his part, is a little intimidated, as the "Scream" franchise has been chugging along quite happily for a while now. "The reality is that I'm a little terrified," he admitted. "My standing in this film is great. The original Ghostface — spoiler alert! A hundred years later — and I come back into the franchise and ruin it, or people don't like me, or people are like, 'That was lame,' you know, there's a lot of risk." With that said, Lillard says he thinks it's going to be pretty great.

"But reading the script, having Kevin at the helm, having Neve back, it just sort of made sense," Lillard said, noting the fact that Neve Campbell is returning for the first time since 2022's "Scream," the franchise's fifth film. "And as a fan of the franchise, as someone that dearly cares about the franchise, I was really excited to be asked. I'm not gonna lie."

Not only that, but when the outlet asked Lillard to describe "Scream 7" in three words, the ones he chose were really encouraging. "Smart, familiar — [Because] Kevin's back, and there's a familiarity about Ghostface — and exceptional," Lillard said. 

"Scream 7" is slated to release on February 27, 2026.