Tom Rhys Harries Lands DC's Clayface Title Role — SkimNews
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- Tom Rhys Harries takes the title role in Clayface, a DC supervillain film set in Gotham City produced by James Gunn (Guardians of the Galaxy) and Matt Reeves (The Batman), after three months of auditions.
- His character Matt Hagen is an Oscar-nominated actor whose face is slashed by a mob boss after sleeping with the boss's girlfriend; a miracle serum from scientist Dr. Caitlyn Corr (Naomi Ackie) restores his looks and grants shape-shifting powers with unstable side effects.
- In one scene, Hagen's eyelids melt and he must snip the sticky mess with nail scissors — what Harries calls "the film's tipping point of ickiness."
- Harries credits a childhood ADHD diagnosis with sustaining his focus: "I don't think I would be doing this job if I didn't have ADHD."
- The film lands as non-Batman, non-Spider-Man, non-Avengers superhero movies falter — Supergirl, Clayface's DC stablemate, is predicted to lose more than $100m — and the recent Warner Bros-Paramount merger is pushing studios toward safer bets.
- Clayface has been compared to Liam Neeson's Darkman and the Demi Moore body-horror satire The Substance, placing it closer to horror than the traditional superhero canon.
Why it matters: Warner Bros is staking a DC tentpole on a body-horror reinvention while Supergirl is projected to lose $100m+ and the post-Warner Bros-Paramount merger is pushing studios toward safe bets. A Clayface win gives DC permission to keep experimenting; a loss locks in the retreat to proven IP formulas.
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