Netflix
This article contains spoilers for "Clayface."
"Clayface" has one of the most confusing cameos in any major studio release this year. In the movie's third act action sequence, Matt Hagen (Tom Rhys Harries) storms a nightclub filled with the gangsters who attacked him and scarred his face. During the scene, he briefly takes on the appearance of a man played by actor Aaron Paul (best known as Jesse Pinkman on "Breaking Bad").
It's literally a blink and you'll miss it cameo, and the movie is unclear about who Aaron Paul's character is supposed to be. But it's been confirmed Paul is meant to be Jimmy "One-Nut" Hagen, Matt's abusive father who is mentioned during the gangsters' assault of Matt. As the brief appearance suggests, "Clayface" filmed more scenes featuring Aaron Paul/Jimmy that went unused in the final cut. "Clayface" director James Watkins, speaking to Entertainment Weekly, explained the decision to cut the flashback scenes to Matt's childhood:
"At one point, we were looking at [Matt's character arc] and thinking, Is it the 'sins of the father'? But actually, as we worked on the script, I thought that notion of revenge was more universal and more relatable to all of us. It doesn't matter whether you're carrying a trauma or any of that. If we're slighted, we carry this sense of being wronged and we all want to do something, but generally in life we can't do anything about it and we're powerless."
"Clayface" loosely adapts the "Batman: The Animated Series" episode "Feat of Clay." That episode certainly needed no childhood backstory for Matt Hagen (Ron Perlman) – he was just an actor hit with bad luck desperate to save his career and the fame it granted him.
Aaron Paul's Clayface cameo suggests more deleted scenes
Warner Bros.
Reportedly, the flashbacks that featured Aaron Paul as Jimmy Hagen would've also included Ishtar Currie Wilson ("The First Omen") as Matt's mother/Jimmy's wife. As for why the movie cut the build-up but kept the pay-off of Matt taking his father's face, James Watkins told EW that "[Matt] is probably also saying, 'No, I'm not my father.'"
But I can't help but think all of Jimmy's presence in "Clayface" should've been cut if the movie wasn't going to introduce the character via the flashbacks. Aaron Paul is an actor who people will recognize, so Matt appearing to randomly take his face feels like an inexplicable cameo. But this isn't the only piece of haphazard editing in "Clayface."
The movie's opening sequence, depicting Matt as a successful actor, his maiming, and then his fall, is notably very rushed and cut like a fast forward montage. He talks about taking the gangsters who attacked him to trial, and then about two minutes later the movie cuts to Matt at the trial, weeks later. The movie also alludes to Matt having skeletons in his closet from growing up poor in Gotham's Narrows neighborhood. Detective John Borelli (Max Minghella) pointedly takes Matt's case file and warns his fiancee Dr. Caitlyn Corr (Naomi Ackie), Matt's doctor, about what he saw in it. But the specifics of those secrets are never spelled out; it's like the resolution to that subplot got chopped out in editing.
Watkins stressed he and the "Clayface" team ultimately concluded Matt Hagen functioned better as an everyman, representing how "primal impulses" like love or revenge can make anyone break bad, versus someone "burdened by his past." The final cut of "Clayface" often dilutes that distinction.
