Matthew Lillard admits he’s had three enduring cinematic moments — in Scream, as its hilariously unhinged killer Stu Macher; in SLC Punk, as the spiky-haired Stevo; and in Scooby Doo, reprising Casey Kasem’s beloved voice role Shaggy Rogers in living color. He is often both goofy and dark, and that dichotomy makes him a weird, but ingenious choice to play Brian Speer, a married real-estate hustler who has an affair with the wife of Matt King (George Clooney) in Alexander Payne’s critical darling The Descendants.

Unlike Brian Speer, Lillard doesn’t need to be confronted or challenged into honesty; he’s a mature, yet devilishly candid actor who’s pondered Hollywood’s fickleness and the personal gratification of acting in equal measure. Movieline caught up with Lillard to discuss his improbable quickie audition for The Descendants, surviving Freddie Prinze Jr.’s filmography, and the legacy of Scream.

This appears to be your first brush with awards season. How disorienting or fun is it?
It’s literally that thing where you’re the fat, ugly kid in high school and all the sudden someone says, “Dude, you have the chance to be the prom king.” You’re like, “What?” You think it’s a joke at first and then it sets in that, wow, you’re on this trajectory. In the back of your mind, you just don’t know if you’re going to get a chance to come back — and I keep talking about this, and I don’t want to repeat shit to you, man — but it’s worth noting because it’s been my life. I’m completely aware of where my career’s been lately, and to have an opportunity to come back like this, with a movie like this and the people I’m with, and to…