By George & Josh Bate
WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Clayface
The new DCU movie, Clayface, may not feature a jaw-dropping guest appearance from Batman or other iconic figures of the DC universe, but it does feature a crazy blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo from an actor who, until now, has not appeared in a live-action comic book project.
The sprawling climactic action sequence in Clayface sees Matt Hagen (Tom Rhys Harries) demonstrate true mastery of his newfound powers by infiltrating a club owned by Szabo, the mob boss who cut up his face at the beginning of the movie. To take out so many armed mob personnel, Hagen shapeshifts into various club goers, including some of the mobsters themselves, to cause conflict and covertly take down his enemies.
At one point in the fight, Hagen is punched several times in the face by one of Szabo’s men. Upon receiving each punch, Hagen briefly transforms into another person. After one of these punches, Hagen transforms into a bearded man wearing a hoodie played by Aaron Paul, the actor known for playing Jesse in Breaking Bad.
Paul’s sudden (and exceptionally brief) appearance in Clayface is quite the head scratcher, to say the least. It does not appear that Paul plays a notable character from DC lore (an off-handed comment seems to suggest he’s playing a mobster, who Hagen takes the appearance of). Paul has also worked with neither Clayface director James Watkins or DCU co-head James Gunn. Rumors once circulated that Paul was up for the role of Booster Gold in a DC project, but this never came to fruition.
Paul’s appearance in Clayface is so brief that many may not even notice his role in the film. Those who do may be perplexed by why Paul appears. It may be something as simple as Paul was in town in Liverpool or shooting nearby and happened to stop by. Or maybe he’s just a really big fan of Clayface? Either way, after voicing Powerplex in Invincible, Paul has finally made his debut in a live-action comic book project, albeit not in the manner anyone expected.
Clayface is now in theaters.