Spoilers follow for Clayface, which is now playing in theaters.
Three-time Emmy winner Aaron Paul has a blink and you’ll miss it cameo in the new DC movie Clayface. Now, the film’s director, James Watkins, has revealed why the Breaking Bad and Westworld star is in DC’s first R-rated horror movie.
Paul plays Jimmy “One Nut” Hagen, the late abusive father of protagonist Matt Hagen (Tom Rhys Harries). Word of Paul’s casting was first reported by Feature First back in June.
Paul’s cameo occurs during the climactic action sequence set at the Gotham City nightclub Vesuvius where Matt confronts the gangsters who disfigured him. Matt finds the hood who killed his dad and morphs into his father to shock the killer.
Paul originally had a larger supporting role in Clayface, appearing in flashbacks to Matt’s youth, but the filmmakers ultimately cut nearly all of those scenes. Paul’s appearance in the nightclub is all that remains of his role.
“In terms of trying to figure out the character, it was, How much is Matt defined by his past and how much is he an everyman?” Watkins told Entertainment Weekly.
“At one point, we were looking at it 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.”
As EW points out, rather than having Matt haunted by his dad he instead weaponizes the memory of his father against his enemies. “He’s probably also saying, ‘No, I’m not my father,’” said Watkins.
For more on the film, read my Clayface review, our Clayface ending explained, and catch up on everything we know so far about the DCU’s Batman.