Matthew Lillard Reveals How Skeet Ulrich Got ‘Five Nights at Freddy’s 2’ Role (Exclusive)

Matthew Lillard has been practicing his career counseling skills.

Ahead of the release of Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, the actor reveals how he played a role in welcoming his former Scream costar Skeet Ulrich to the world of evil animatronics. 

“When Scott [Cawthon] was considering who to cast for this role that Skeet’s in, he started looking around and considering who — sort of a middle-aged man,” Lillard tells PEOPLE in an exclusive interview, referring to the creator of the original Five Nights at Freddy’s game.

Lillard, 55, went on to recall Cawthon asking him, “What’s Skeet like to work with? How is he as a guy?” to which he responded with something along the lines of, “He’s a dream. He’s the sweetest man around. He’s talented, and he cares deeply about fans.”

Beyond their history in the horror genre, having both portrayed the killers behind the Ghostface mask in the original 1996 film Scream, Lillard says that he and Ulrich, 55, also have something special in common with Cawthon.

“I think that both of us approach fandom with love and admiration and appreciation,” the actor, who recently starred in an ad for Exact Sciences’ Cologuard test, explains.

“And I think that really speaks to Scott, because he has that same affiliation with his fans. I think that’s one of the reasons he brought in Skeet. And I think Skeet knocked it out of the park. He’s fantastic in the film, and I’m excited for people to see it,” continues Lillard.

As for what fans can expect? For starters, Lillard teases that Cawthon and the film’s director, Emma Scott, “listened to what fans had to say,” which was to ultimately make the sequel even scarier than the first installment. 

“We want more jump scares,” he emphasizes. “We want to sit in the audience and not only get lore from the world, we want to be filled with feelings. We want to feel the movie like we felt the game.”

Adding that he recently saw the film himself, Lillard gave it his stamp of approval. 

“I think they did an incredible job executing on that,” he says. “And I think the fans are going to lose their minds. I think the movie is really fantastic.”

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Josh Hutcherson — who portrayed protagonist Mike Schmidt in the first film alongside Lillard, Elizabeth Lail (Vanessa) and Piper Rubio (Abby) in the first film — teased a few details about the project himself during a July 24 appearance at San Diego Comic-Con. 

“Mike and Abby went through a lot in the first movie,” Hutcherson, 32, told the crowd at the time. “Mike is just trying to find a stable life. He wants to have a nice, calm, normal life. And that just can’t happen. Poor Mike. He’s going through it.”

Beyond “a lot more animatronics” and “bigger set pieces” this time around, the Hunger Games star also assured fans that there would be a lot more depth and feeling in the second film. 

“The bond between Mike and Abby is super strong,” he added. “And they get to a place where it’s even stronger.”

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 will be released in theaters on Dec. 5.