Aaron Paul Originally Had A Much More Important Role In Clayface

4 hours ago 21

Published Oct 24, 2026, 9:45 AM EDT

Tomas Franzese is the Weekend News Editor at Polygon, following and reporting on the latest goings-on in the gaming and entertainment spaces. During the week, you can find him working on Remastered, his newsletter about video game history and retro gaming, or contributing to GameSpot and other publications. Previously, Tomas was the Gaming Segment Lead at XDA and a Staff Writer at Digital Trends.

A blink-and-you'll-miss-it Clayface cameo is the last remnant of a character mostly cut from the movie

Aaron Paul closeup in Westworld Season 3

Clayface hit theaters this weekend, but one actor's role turned out to be smaller than expected. We knew Aaron Paul would be in the DC horror flick prior to its release, but in the final film, he cameos in just one scene. In a recent interview, director James Watkins revealed that Aaron Paul had a bigger role in Clayface that was mostly cut out of the theatrical release.

Who does Aaron Paul portray in Clayface?

Minor spoilers for Clayface to follow

Breaking Bad and Dispatch actor Aaron Paul appears during one of Clayface's most memorable sequences, as Matt Hagen transforms into him during a sequence set in Vesuvius to kill a Szabo gang member who killed his father. It turns out Aaron Paul was portraying Matt Hagen's abusive father, with Watkins telling Entertainment Weekly that Paul's character originally had more scenes in the movie.

"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," Watkins revealed, highlighting how the central themes of the movie evolved in post-production.

"It doesn’t matter whether you’re carrying a trauma or any of that," he continued. "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."

While this approach makes Matt Hagen's Clayface a more interesting character in the final film, it ultimately leaves Aaron Paul's appearance as a neat but somewhat confusing cameo. At the very least, knowing who Paul is supposed to be adds emotional heft to a sequence already considered one of Clayface's best.

Hopefully, DC Studios will release those Clayface deleted scenes more prominently featuring Aaron Paul in the future, or use the fact that he was mostly cut from this film as a reason to recast him as a more prominent character in a future movie.

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