Matthew Lillard Ja Tecson
Zoinks! Matthew Lillard is traveling back in time to visit the Scooby-Doo Mystery Machine 20 years after the live-action film’s 2002 release.
The Good Girls alum, 52, has teamed with Airbnb to invite fans to book a stay in the Mystery Machine van, which will be decked out in the grooviest gadgets from the ’60s-era. He will welcome the lucky guests with a virtual video — (“They didn’t make me put the bell bottoms on, thank God!”) — but don’t expect Lillard to reprise the role of Shaggy on the big screen any time soon.
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“We are all now in our fifties. I can’t imagine us as meddling teenagers and playing meddling teenagers anymore. The good news is that the thrilling thing for me is I still get to do the voice so I’m still engaged in the character. I’m still engaged in the franchise,” he exclusively told Us Weekly on Monday, June 6. “I hold this character as mine until they replace me and move me out to pasture. I take a lot of pride in that, so it’s really nice to be connected to a character all these years later. But if they ever did Scooby apocalypse, maybe then I would do it.”
Lillard starred as Norville “Shaggy” Rogers in Scooby-Doo and the 2004 sequel Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed alongside Freddie Prinze Jr. (Fred), Sarah Michelle Gellar (Daphne) and Linda Cardellini (Velma).
Matthew Lillard Warner Bros/Kobal/Shutterstock
“I flew down to audition for the part. I was the first person they saw. We auditioned at like 10:00 AM on a Saturday morning,” Lillard recalled to Us. “And the only way I could do the voice originally was to scream myself horse. So I pulled into the audition and — I’ll never forget — the director [Raja Gosnell] and the producer were walking across the parking lot. I didn’t see them at the time. And I was screaming in my car, ‘Ahhhh! Ahhh!’ And they come up to the window and they knocked on the window. And they’re like, ‘Are you OK?’ I’m like, ‘Yeah, just getting ready for the voice.’”
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Once he landed the role, the Scream star “had to figure out how to do it” for “hours on end” on set.
Matthew Lillard Warner Bros/Kobal/Shutterstock
“Every day on the way to work, whether it was a five-minute drive or a half hour drive or an hour drive, I would listen to Casey Kasem on a loop,” he said of the late radio DJ, who originated the voice. “I had the AV department cut together, like, 15 episodes of just Casey doing Shaggy. I still have it somewhere.”
For Lillard, it’s been “super rewarding” to be a part of the iconic franchise. “It’s fun to celebrate a movie I did so long ago that people still care [about.] It’s humbling,” he said. “I’m just thrilled to be a part of it.”
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The Mystery Machine stay is now bookable on Airbnb and is located on a private property along the Southern California coastline. It will include all-you-can-eat snacks and a selection to choose from for dinner (including Shaggy and Scooby’s favorites like hot dogs and eggplant burgers!), mystery games, a chance to listen to Sugar Ray’s album on a portable CD player while setting the mood with a lava lamp, a late-night rewatch of Scooby-Doo, an outdoor setup with lounge seating and more.
Freddie Prinze Jr, Linda Cardellini, Matthew Lillard, Sarah Michelle Gellar Hannah Barbera Prods/Atlas/Kobal/Shutterstock
“It’s spectacular. … I just think that for fans of the movie, they’re gonna love it,” the She’s All That actor told Us. “They spared no expense in creating this experience. I walked out to see it and the whole crew kind of stepped back and let me have a moment [to look around]. … It’s inspiring.”
Guests will be able to book three individual one-night stays on June 24, June 25 and June 26 for only $20 a night. Mystery Inc. fans can request to book this stay beginning Thursday, June 16, at 1 p.m. ET. For more information, go here.
