Spoilers for “Clayface” follow.
An odd thing happens near the end of “Clayface,” the new DC Universe horror movie about the Batman villain (read our review here). Our protagonist, Matt Hagen (Tom Rhys Harries) infiltrates a nightclub run by the Gotham gangsters who disfigured him and ruined his life. Matt has undergone an experimental procedure using AI-powered nanotech that repairs his face but also gives him shapeshifting abilities. In an attempt to avoid detection and cause confusion, Matt moves through the crowded club and keeps changing into different people.
In the midst of all of this, he suddenly changes into a guy who sure looks a hell of a lot like “Breaking Bad” star Aaron Paul. What’s more, one of the gangsters recognizes this new visage as Matt Hagen’s father. After approximately five seconds (maybe less, even), Matt transforms back into himself. The guy who looks like Aaron Paul has no lines, nor does he appear again.
“That really looked like Aaron Paul, but no way they would cast Aaron Paul in such a nothing role,” I told myself in the theater. But when I got home from the screening I did some googling and learned that at one point, Paul was indeed rumored to be part of the “Clayface” cast. While I guess it’s entirely possible that the folks behind “Clayface” gave Aaron Paul a dialogue-free, blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo, I think something else is going on here.
Aaron Paul’s Clayface cameo suggests deleted scenes
In “Clayface,” Matt Hagen is a big movie star who grew up on the mean streets of Gotham. In an early scene in the film, we’re told that Matt’s father was rather infamous and abusive — and was also well-known in the Gotham underworld, which explains why one of the gangsters recognizes him during the club transformation scene. But again: why cast Aaron Paul as this character and then give him nothing to do?
My guess is that there must be a deleted scene or two featuring Paul as Matt’s father. To further back theory this up, IMDb lists an actor named Seth Isaac Thomas as “Young Matt Hagen” — but there are no scenes in the final film featuring Matt Hagen as a kid. Perhaps whenever “Clayface” hits digital and Blu-ray we’ll finally get a look at these alleged deleted scenes, and we’ll learn if Aaron Paul actually got to deliver at least one line of dialogue before virtually all his footage ended up on the cutting room floor. Interestingly enough, this isn’t Paul’s first run-in with the world of Batman: He was offered, and turned down, a small role in Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy.
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