If you saw Clayface, then you noticed a very, very quick cameo from actor Aaron Paul. But why get the Breaking Bad, Westworld, and Bojack Horseman star in just a blink-and-you-miss-it part? Well, it’s actually a remnant of a much longer role that the former Jesse Pinkman once had in the film, almost entirely cut out. According to Clayface director James Watkins, Paul played Jimmy “One Nut” Hagen, Matt Hagen’s abusive father, who was also part of Gotham’s criminal underworld when Matt was a child.
In the film, Paul’s cameo happens during the big action sequence set at the Gotham City nightclub Vesuvius. This is the scene where shapeshifter Matt Hagen confronts the gangsters responsible for disfiguring him. Matt finds the one who murdered his father, transforming into his dad to throw him off balance. So why did James Watkins cut out almost all of Aaron Paul’s scenes? According to the Clayface director, it was to make Matt (Tom Rhys Harries) more of an everyman with an ambiguous past. Here’s what he said to Entertainment Weekly:
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? 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.
Nerdist’s Take: Since Aaron Paul’s Role Was Substantial, We May See It in an Eventual Longer Cut of Clayface
Reports also suggest that test audiences reacted badly to the scenes of Aaron Paul’s character being abusive to a child. Although, we can’t officially confirm that. We suppose not having flashbacks to Matt Hagen’s past sells the point that he isn’t traumatized from ongoing damage from his youth, but just suffered “one bad day,” and turned to the dark side. Who knows, maybe we see Aaron Paul’s scene in an extended Clayface cut at some point down the line. But for now, the cameo is an interesting glimpse into a different version of the film.