Matthew Lillard just made every gay Scream fan’s day by officially declaring that Billy Loomis and Stu Macher were horror’s first gay couple – and his reasoning will hit you right in the feels.
The 55-year-old actor, who played the knife-wielding Stu in Wes Craven‘s 1996 slasher classic, appeared at Silver Screen Con alongside co-stars Skeet Ulrich (Billy), Rose McGowan (Tatum), and Roger L. Jackson who is the voice of Ghostface in all the Scream movies.
When the host inevitably brought up the long-standing fan theory that Billy and Stu were secret lovers, Matthew leaned ALL THE WAY in.
“We are the first husbands of horror,” Matthew declared to a cheering crowd, before delivering a message that’s been making waves across social media (watch it below).
But this isn’t just about validating fan theories – Matthew revealed he might have been playing Stu as gay all along, and his heartfelt words to young LGBTQ+ fans show exactly why representation matters.
Plus, apparently the man is ready to star in a gay rom-com with Tom Cruise, because 2025 keeps getting more interesting.
The Gay “Scream” Theory
For anyone who needs a refresher on why this matters, let’s go back to 1996. Scream introduced us to Billy Loomis and Stu Macher – two high school best friends who turned out to be the masked killers terrorizing Woodsboro.
On paper, they were just twisted buddies with a revenge plot against Sidney Prescott‘s family.
But watch their scenes again, and there’s something else going on. Stu doesn’t just follow Billy around – he practically worships him.
Every interaction between them crackles with an intensity that goes beyond friendship. When Stu explains his motive as “peer pressure” because he’s “far too sensitive,” it sounds less like a throwaway line and more like someone admitting they’d do anything for love.
The way Stu constantly seeks Billy’s approval, how he lights up when Billy pays attention to him, that moment during their villain reveal where he rests his head on Billy’s shoulder – it all reads like a guy desperately in love with his best friend.
Fans have been reading Billy and Stu as a couple for decades, and there’s actually solid ground for it.
Screenwriter Kevin Williamson, who happens to be gay, has openly discussed basing their relationship on Leopold and Loeb – the real-life 1920s killers who were lovers.
As he put it: “It’s very sort of homoerotic, in the sense that there were these two guys [who] killed this other person just to see if they could get away with it.”
So the queer subtext wasn’t some accidental byproduct of fan imagination – it was baked into the script from day one.
“Horror’s First Gay Husbands”
When the inevitable question about the Billy-Stu romance theory came up at Silver Screen Con, things got interesting fast.
Matthew and Skeet immediately started getting physical on stage – petting each other, with Matthew going so far as to twist Skeet’s nipple (yes).
Rose jumped in with her own take, suggesting the relationship dynamics might have been “a motive in Tatum’s death” and calling it a “deep subplot that maybe they weren’t even aware of.”
That’s when Matthew dropped the bomb.
“Maybe we were totally aware,” he said, before declaring: “We are the first husbands of horror.”
But he wasn’t done. The real gut punch came next: “The reason I love it is because there’s a lot of hatred in the world right now. I love standing up and saying we are the first gay couple ever in the horror movie and there’s nothing they can f**king say about it.
“You can’t touch it, you can’t take it away. So, if there’s a little gay kid out there going, ‘Oh my god’, we see you, we love you.”
The audience went absolutely wild. The video capturing Matthew’s speech has been making rounds across social media, with fans calling him “everything” and begging the universe to “protect Matthew at all costs.”
Look, Matthew could have easily laughed off the question or given some noncommittal answer about fan interpretations. Instead, he chose to lean all the way in and use the moment to send love to young LGBTQ+ fans who might be struggling.
This isn’t just about retroactively making characters gay for internet points. This is about an actor recognizing that representation – even unintentional representation – matters to people.
That sometimes the subtext you read into a character relationship isn’t just wishful thinking, but something that was actually there all along.
The Rom-Com Twist
As if Matthew’s convention comments weren’t enough to make us love him forever, there’s more. In a recent interview with US Weekly, he revealed he’s ready for his “rom-com era” and specifically wants to be in a gay romantic comedy.
His dream co-star? Tom Cruise, naturally.
“I would love to do a gay rom-com. I think the world needs a smash-hit rom-com with two beautiful men or two fantastically gorgeous women,” Matthew told the magazine, though he admitted he’d need some time to work on his abs first.
So here’s to Matthew Lillard, for giving us the Scream confirmation we didn’t know we needed, for his heartfelt message to young queer fans, and for reminding us that sometimes the best allies are the ones who surprise you.
Now somebody please get this man that Tom Cruise rom-com. The world is ready for it.