Stealth, deception, surprise – director James Watkins talks about the action in “CLAYFACE” and the “dark glee” Matt Hagen has as he discovers his superpowers. “CLAYFACE” is now showing in cinemas, rated R-18

 

Action sequences become boring for “Clayface” director James Watkins when they’re generic and not tethered to something that’s at the core of the film.

“It’s like love scenes; they’re boring when they’re two people naked in bed. They’re interesting when they inform character and who these people are,” says the filmmaker. “It’s the same with action sequences. They have to be imbued with character. Otherwise, anyone can do anything with enough resources and enough stunts. It becomes about people punching each other and I get ‘stunt fatigue.’ I can’t bear it when heroes in movies suddenly become Navy SEALs when they’re really ordinary people.”

Watch the trailer: https://youtu.be/Xk_QQyvEERE?si=t6nPzEBUFyL2u1yI

For Matt Hagen / Clayface (played by Tom Rhys Harries), Watkins made sure that Matt’s transition to a superpowered individual is believably rooted in the character’s background. “In talking about Matt with the stunt crew and everybody, it was always, ‘He’s an actor,’” shares Watkins. “It’s not that he suddenly has this incredible ability to fight – but what he does have is this ability to shift, so he can ambush people. And as a brilliant actor, his superpower has a superpower. So, it becomes about the evolution or discovery of his powers throughout the sequence. 

“Stealth, deception, surprise. If someone punches him, and that punch happens to go through his face and the guy hits a wall, then he’s like, ‘Oh, wow!’ He’s learning as we’re learning, and there’s this dark glee when he’s learning it. That ‘dark glee’ was important to me. The playful tone. The ‘permission to enjoy.’ When you are enjoying the ride with Matt, laughing with him, it makes it much more complicated when he crosses a line!”

 

Producer Matt Reeves, who directed 2022’s critically acclaimed “The Batman,” breaks down what he thinks is interesting about “Clayface.” “I think what’s exciting about this kind of origin story is this idea of doing an anti-hero horror story, where you’re going through a journey with someone and you’re seeing them go into areas that are very… I mean, on top of being a combination of a romance and a sort of horror thriller, it’s also really a revenge story,” says Reeves. “So, to go on that journey where you’re on that razor’s edge – you know this person’s doing the wrong things but you’re digging into the psychology of it, along with the horror of his actions – that’s a very exciting way to get into the Clayface story. And I think James Watkins did an incredible job with that.”

Speaking of the film’s own origin story, Reeves shares that he first thought of what would eventually become “Clayface” after working on “The Batman”: “After ‘The Batman,’ I was very excited about this idea. ‘The Batman’ was not a Batman origin story, but what it did – because it was his first appearance in the city – it was an entree into origin stories for the Rogues’ Gallery. After the movie, when we started working on the script for the next Batman, we began thinking it’d be really exciting to develop a bunch of stories that could be genre stories that related to the Rogues’ Gallery characters and explore their origins. And one of the things I got very excited about was the idea of looking for ways to do really cool, smaller horror films. 

“And [Screenwriter] Mike Flanagan came to me and said he had been a huge fan of Clayface – especially the iteration that came from the animated series – and had a passion about doing a horror story with Clayface at the core. So, we started developing it. And as that story started coming together, becoming this sort of tragic love story – ‘The Fly’ meets this horror thriller – James [Gunn] and Peter [Safran] took over DC Studios, and that was one of the first things we pitched to them. They loved it so much, they wanted to make it one of the DCU movies.”

 

For Naomie Ackie, who plays Dr. Caitlyn Corr, working on “Clayface” was “just awesome. It’s genuinely a dream come true. I have wanted to be in a comic book film since I was like 11!” 

Ackie says that what interested her most about her character, a scientist, and Matt Hagen, an actor, is that they “come from a similar background. They are really hungry for acclaim, for being noticed for doing something that makes a difference, especially for Caitlyn. So, it’s a very tempting thing to have someone saying, ‘Hey, I want your help and I think we can make this work… and I’ll do anything.’ And she responds, ‘Okay, I’ll give it a go.’ There’s a bit of a mad scientist about Caitlyn. It’s the similarity in their characters and their desperation to be seen and acknowledged that leads to ambition really getting the better of her.”

Rhy Harries, who plays the titular Gotham City villain, says it was interesting to try to get under the skin of a character that can shapeshift. “I was aware of Clayface as a character from watching the Batman cartoon series when I was younger,” he shares. “It’s interesting when you have a character that is able to shapeshift into anybody or anything – how do you get under the skin of a character who can do that? When we meet Matt in this movie, he has no concept of Clayface. He’s just trying to maintain his life. You have a person who has everything at the start of the film – he has an ideal career and life. What interested me moving through that is what is underneath anybody’s aspiration to achieve. And what I ended up thinking a lot about is the concept of running towards something or running away from something. Sometimes, we’re not sure whether we’re running away or toward – and those two things aren’t mutually exclusive. I think Matt realizes throughout the film what his priorities are, and what happens to him sort of clarifies certain things for him, which in turn drives him to do the things he does.”

“Clayface” is now showing in cinemas, rated R-18.