You would think that, by nature, Clayface would be intangible because he can shapeshift into anyone. But what’s beautiful about James Watkins’ new Clayface movie is how the humanity of up-and-coming actor Matt Hagen shines through, even after he becomes a monster. Through Watkins’ direction, Tom Rhys Harries’ performance as Matt Hagen, and the dynamic between Matt and Dr. Caitlyn Corr, Clayface shows us the devastating power of grounding DC’s more monstrous characters in a very human reality.

When you watch Clayface, you learn early on that Matt Hagen is from a Gotham City neighborhood called “The Narrows,” which is the roughest part of town. The fact that a guy from somewhere like that managed to build a successful career in the film industry in Coast City is nothing short of a miracle. But what’s worth considering is that even though Matt integrated himself nicely into his posh new city, his roots in the Narrows still follow him wherever he goes, particularly through his accent.

When Matt’s life falls apart after his knife attack and he’s forced to move back to a rundown Narrows apartment, his accent grows stronger. And that’s by design.

“I spent a lot of time with my dialect coach, Sonia Fields, prior to shooting,” Harries shares. “We talked a lot about code-switching [for Clayface] because I certainly do that when I go back to Cardiff, where I’m from. It’s somewhat complicated by the fact that I speak Welsh with a lot of my friends and family when I go back home. But definitely if I’m back in Cardiff, I start talking a bit like I’m from Cardiff.”

The movement of Matt’s accent across the film caught the actor’s imagination. Obviously, Gotham City is fictional, but giving Gothamites a specific local dialect adds to the realism and humanity of the film.

Of course, you can’t talk about Clayface’s humanity without examining the relationship between Matt and Dr. Caitlyn Corr, played by Naomi Ackie. Clayface can be seen as a horror story or a supervillain origin, but it draws from other genres and tropes as well. For example, through Matt and Caitlyn’s dynamic, it adds a scientific twist to what can be viewed as a modern riff on a classic gothic romance. Caitlyn is the one who developed the experimental substance that helps Matt look passably “normal” again. And as the two characters get to know each other, Matt is drawn to the fact that she’s refreshingly “honest” about everything, marking a distinction from the surface-level life he built in Coast City.

For Ackie, the budding emotional intimacy between Matt and Caitlyn was compelling to dive into because of how the film sets their relationship within the larger, looming atmosphere of Gotham.

“It feels quite small, granular, like in the grand aspect of the story, but also the whole of Gotham City,” Ackie says. “It felt really beautiful to focus on this very slow-growing, intimate relationship within the horror space of this film. And it’s just a fun contrast, knowing that on one day you’re doing a lab scene where they’re getting to know each other, and then the next day [Matt’s] off murdering someone.”

Matt’s journey to becoming Clayface wouldn’t hit as hard if the film didn’t establish an emotional tether to another character in the story. And luckily for us, Ackie’s turn as Caitlyn sets the stage for the final act of the film, where Harries and Ackie got to “push the extremes of where these characters have ended up.” And boy, does that buildup pay off.

Some of our favorite Gotham City stories, whether in comics or film, circle similar tensions around having your humanity stripped from you. For instance, Batman has struggled valiantly with the fact that underneath all the gadgets and fancy armor, he’s a regular human in a world of aliens, gods and metahumans. He is a man who has been transformed into a symbol and an idea that’s divorced from his own human mortality. And as we know from V for Vendetta, ideas are bulletproof, even if Bruce Wayne isn’t.

Clayface is no different in this regard. As Tom Rhys Harries’ performance as Matt Hagen shows us, beneath all the goop of Clayface’s body horror is one tragic and very hurt man who we can all empathize with.
 

Clayface, directed by James Watkins and starring Tom Rhys Harries and Naomi Ackie, is now in theaters.

Jules Chin Greene writes about comics, movies and superheroes for DC.com, and his work can also be found at Popverse, Nerdist and Multiverse of Color. Follow him on Instagram at @infinitevibes and Bluesky at @JulesChinGreene.