Yes, That Was Aaron Paul in 'Clayface' — Director Explains the Blink-and-You-Miss-It Cameo
Aaron Paul is officially in the DCU — if you blinked, you missed him. Entertainment Weekly reports that the Breaking Bad star makes a secret cameo in DC Studios' Clayface, appearing for only a few seconds as Matt Hagen's late father in the film's climactic nightclub showdown.
The blink-and-you-miss-it cameo
In the third act, Matt Hagen (Tom Rhys Harries) infiltrates Club Vesuvius — the nightclub of mobster Markos Szabo — to take down the gangster and his girlfriend Mia Torrez. As Hagen cuts through the crowd using his shapeshifting powers, he briefly takes the face of his deceased father, Jimmy 'One Nut,' to rattle a veteran gangster who once knew the man, EW reported.
The face is a bearded, long-haired Aaron Paul, and the moment lasts only a few seconds with no dialogue before Hagen melts into another form, ComicBook.com noted.
What the director says
Director James Watkins, also known for Speak No Evil and Eden Lake, told EW that Paul's casting 'was leaked in the months leading up to the release of Clayface,' calling the appearance 'a real brief Easter egg kind of moment.'
The production actually shot additional flashbacks of Hagen growing up in Gotham's slums with Paul playing the abusive father — Seth Thomas played young Matt and Ishtar Currie Wilson his mother — but that material was largely cut, EW reported. 'A brief blip of Paul as Jimmy in that impressive fight sequence is the last remnant of what almost was,' Watkins said.
Fans want the deleted scenes
Viewers were quick to spot the cameo, with fans on social media calling it a 'literal blink-and-you-miss-it moment' and wondering aloud whether the Breaking Bad star originally had a bigger role, ComicBook.com reported.
ScreenRant noted that the film's IMDb listing still credits Seth Isaac Thomas as 'Young Matt Hagen' even though no childhood flashbacks appear in the finished film — a hint that the cut scenes could surface as deleted scenes on the digital or Blu-ray release. Paul, the Breaking Bad and Westworld veteran soon to be seen in Fallout season 3, is now officially part of the DCU — for all of three seconds.
Sources: Entertainment Weekly; ScreenRant; ComicBook.com; Looper.