Spoilers for Clayface follow.
Aaron Paul’s part in Clayface was once bigger than it looks on screen. Director James Watkins says the film’s focus shifted from inherited trauma to revenge during development, and the flashbacks that showed Paul as Matt Hagen’s father went with it. What’s left is a few seconds in the climactic nightclub fight.
That appearance comes at Gotham’s Vesuvius club, where Matt (Tom Rhys Harries) confronts the gangsters who disfigured him. Matt tracks down the hood who killed his father and morphs into the dead man to rattle him. Paul plays that father, so his face is the one that shows up. IGN reports that the filmmakers cut nearly all of his earlier scenes, which showed Matt’s youth.
Deadline reports that Watkins described the surviving moment to Entertainment Weekly as “a real brief Easter egg kind of moment.” The reason for the trim lies in how the character of Matt developed. Watkins said the question was how much Matt is defined by his past and how much he’s an everyman. The team considered a “sins of the father” angle, but as the script developed, Watkins decided revenge was more universal and relatable.
His argument is that you don’t need to carry a specific trauma to understand the film’s central impulse. Watkins said that when we’re slighted, we feel wronged and want to act, but usually can’t and feel powerless. A backstory built around an abusive father pulled against that, which made the flashbacks easy to lose.
The father still has a function, just a different one. Instead of haunting Matt through flashbacks, the memory of Jimmy becomes a weapon Matt uses against those who wronged him. Watkins also reads a defiance into it: “He’s probably also saying, ‘No, I’m not my father.’”
For viewers who haven’t seen it yet, the cameo is easy to miss, so it’s worth knowing where to look. We’ve also covered the film’s gross new trailer and James Gunn’s confirmation that it’s chronologically the first DCU film.
Who does Aaron Paul play in Clayface?
Paul plays Matt Hagen’s late, abusive father. His likeness appears when Matt shape-shifts into the dead man during the Vesuvius nightclub fight.
When was Aaron Paul’s casting first reported?
IGN says Feature First reported it in June. The role was described as minor, and it turned out to be even smaller in the final cut.
Is Clayface rated R?
IGN describes Clayface as DC’s first R-rated horror movie, and says it’s now playing in theatres.
