PopHorror Let's Get Scared
Masked murderer. Food-loving teen detective. Evil animatronic. Over the course of his career, Matthew Lillard (Scream 1996) has taken on a slew of iconic and varying roles, making him a fan-favorite among numerous generations. Even after nearly 30 years in the industry, he continues to expand his resume, with “cake competition host” as the latest and, for Lillard, possibly most unexpected, bullet point.
Lillard helms Prime Video’s Killer Cakes, a new mini reality series from Blumhouse Television that tasks teams of bakers with bringing to life horrifying cake creations, all for the chance to win $20,000. The finished products of blood, guts and vomit galore are judged by scream queen Danielle Harris (Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers 1988) and peculiar food artist Nikk Alcaraz (Practical Peculiarities: A Creepy Kitchen 2021). From a possessed hospital patient to a swamp witch, the contestants use their creativity and love for horror to build these terrifyingly tasty masterpieces, with special effects added by Scare Squad team Ashley Levy and Tom Woodruff Jr., both acclaimed SFX artists.
PopHorror recently chatted with Lillard about all-things Killer Cakes (including how he initially turned down the job), the beauty of getting to connect with fans, the legacy of Scream, his new horror-themed tequila and more.
PopHorror: Matthew, it’s a pleasure to speak with you! I’ve got my coffee here… *holds up Ghostface mug*
Matthew Lillard: Nice!
PopHorror: Killer Cakes, I’m assuming this was pitched to you. I’d love to know what your initial reaction was and what made you say, “Yes, I want to do this show.”
Matthew Lillard: My initial reaction was, “No way. No way in hell.” [laughs] I started my career as a host of SK8 TV and have been focused on being an actor for the rest of that time. I think I saw yesterday that it was in 1998. That can’t be right… But yeah, they brought it to me and I said, “No,” and I sort of said, “No,” twice, and the third time, my manager came around and his wife, God bless her, is a very well-established agent in the sort of reality space and said to her husband, my manager Jason, “Matt should reconsider that offer because it’s a great group. ITV is fantastic, Jason Blum is fantastic, and it sort of speaks to his brand.” To be candid, I was like, “I don’t know, it doesn’t make any sense, what if I suck at it?” And I was really insecure about it. And then my wife said, “Well if it scares you, that’s always a good sign.” So I took the offer and I went ahead and had a blast. I was so shocked at how much fun it was.
PopHorror: It looked like you had a blast, and you were really good at it, too!
Matthew Lillard: I haven’t seen it yet, I’m hoping I didn’t suck.
PopHorror: You definitely didn’t suck. I’d love to hear more about your experience on set, starting with your big entrance with the chainsaw. Was that your idea, or were they like, “Here, go for it!”
Matthew Lillard: No, it was their idea, it was Ruth [Amsel], the director/show creator. She’s fantastic and I just think the world of her. I felt like it was campy. But again, I was out of my comfort zone. That putting on a mask and acting with the chainsaw, I just thought the whole thing was so campy and silly, but Ruth was like, “I promise you it’s going to be great, it’s going to be super fun.” And so we did it. Once I say, “Yes,” to something, I very rarely go slow. I usually jump in with both feet. I see it all over the trailers, obviously I haven’t watched it yet, but it looks like a fun little beat to open to the show.
PopHorror: And the contestants had such a cool reaction when they saw that it was you. I know that’s something you get a lot. You do a ton of conventions, you have all these different generations coming to meet you. Is that something you ever get used to?
Matthew Lillard: Yeah, to some extent. I’ve been doing cons now for a long time and so, I love that transaction of energy between people. I love sort of being there and meeting people and having a moment, sharing a moment with people. But I’ve been acting for so long, and I find that the interesting thing about fame, if I may be so bold, I have a very normal life, I’m a very normal person. I’m a dad, I coach soccer, I pick up my kids from school. My job is weird to other people, but it’s just my job. And the value of fame is what it does and how it affects other people.
The beautiful thing about conventions, the beautiful thing about meeting fans or those contestants on that day is that I know there’s real value in being the guy from that thing. And I love seeing the little queer kid out in the middle of America or somebody struggling with addiction or somebody who’s lost, and hugging them and seeing them and making them feel seen. That’s the part of being famous that’s really powerful. It has nothing to do with getting good reservations, nothing to do with some kind of perceived power. It’s the ability to affect people’s lives in a really profound way. In a moment when they may need it the most, to be able to see somebody and make them feel seen is the beauty of what I do. It’s the joy of being famous, it’s the joy of being able to have an impact on people’s lives. That, to me, is a beautiful thing about all of this.
So being a host, and being able to be an advocate for those contestants, really deeply caring for their success, I felt immediately drawn to having that position as the host. It’s us against the show. It’s you and I, we are gonna get this cake finished. It sounds stupid, but I like having that point of view going in, rooting for the people. Because I feel like when I’m watching shows like that, I’m deeply rooting for all the people. That’s the great thing about these baking shows.
PopHorror: Danielle and Nikk had to be quarantined backstage the whole time, but you actually got to go around, talk to the contestants, see these things come to life. What was that like?
Matthew Lillard: It’s a little like making a movie, there’s no real surprise. I think the one thing I was surprised about is how much of it is really a TV show. The people are baking full-on and the cakes are incredible, and all of that is happening in real time. But there’s no surprises, really. You know which team’s behind, you know where people are, you know when people are struggling. I’d go off in my trailer and I’d read for an hour or something and I’d get updates as to how people are doing, and I’d go out and sort of engage. It’s a little like watching them make sausage. You’re like, “Oh, I didn’t really know that all of this went into the production.” But there’s all these incredible teams behind these productions that I found intrinsically fascinating.
PopHorror: I thought the Scare Squad of Tom and Ashley was amazing. One of their credits is Five Nights at Freddy’s (our review). Did you work with them at all on the set of the film?
Matthew Lillard: Ashley was the key makeup, she did my makeup. I’m gonna see her in, like, three weeks. She’s great, she’s family.
PopHorror: One of the cakes that really stood out to me was the slaughterhouse one, with the bacon and peanut butter flavor. Did that taste as good as it sounds?
Matthew Lillard: All the cakes tasted delicious. The thing that’s interesting is, the entire cake is not edible. Most of it is marzipan and some kind of structure. But the chunk of cake that was edible, they were all delicious. All of those people are there for a reason. I just thought, “It’s cake, man. There’s nothing bad about cake.”
PopHorror: Obviously the show is called Killer Cakes, but did you expect them to be so on this gore level with the vomit and blood spewing everywhere?
Matthew Lillard: They had done an early video to pitch the show and they made a puking baby, a demonic baby. That’s what really turned me into the host is that, at some point, they got around to sharing this video of a vomiting, evil baby. I was like, “Alright, I think this is gonna work.”
PopHorror: I love that that’s the thing that won you over! I spoke with Danielle the other day and she said that she could never do what these contestants do as far as baking. Do you bake at all?
Matthew Lillard: Oh, no. That is not my love language. My kids bake, but that is not my jam.
PopHorror: And, of course, I always love to ask, and this is so perfect that I’m speaking to you, what’s your favorite scary movie?
Matthew Lillard: Scream! Changed my life.
PopHorror: Good answer! That’s something you did when you were in your 20s, and I feel like it’s more popular than ever.
Matthew Lillard: It’s weird, it’s had this whole resurgence that is sort of undeniable and super exciting, just being one of the old guys. It’s a nice little boon. I’ve been really blessed through my life to have a couple of these really lovely franchises. Even though I was only in the first one, the way that first movie is revered in the new movies, the way that it’s sort of been built up over time, it’s a real honor and it’s obviously one of the highlights of my career. But this is really lovely to have a movie that’s that old and still relevant in the zeitgeist, and even more so, like you said, it is having a second life right now. And having Kevin [Williamson] and Neve [Campbell] get back in there and continue the saga is exciting.
PopHorror: And I understand that you have your own horror tequila?!
Matthew Lillard: We launch the 22nd of this month. I have a company called Find Familiar Spirits, we do a Dungeons & Dragons-themed line of whiskey, and we just launched a thing called Macabre Spirits. It comes along with a book written by Mike Flanagan, who is modern master of horror. It comes with an 80-page horrific horror story. And the tequila just went on sale.
PopHorror: That sounds amazing! Where will it be sold?
Matthew Lillard: It’s direct to customer, so you can get it delivered right to your front door. It’s super fun.
PopHorror: Was there anything additional you wanted fans to know about Killer Cakes? Why should they watch it?
Matthew Lillard: I think the show is super fun and campy. This Halloween season, if you are a fan of the macabre, if you’re a fan of what this season represents, then here’s a silly little opportunity to celebrate that passion, starring the one and only old man Lillard. [laughs] But it’s super fun. I had fun doing it, and I think people are responding to it because you can feel how much fun all of us had.
Thanks for speaking with us, Matthew! Killer Cakes is available to stream on Prime Video.
