‘A tipping point of ickiness’: Welsh star Tom Rhys Harries on playing eyelid-snipping DC supervillain Clayface
He cut his teeth playing rock stars and pretty posh boys. Speaking from his LA home, the actor talks about landing his first blockbuster lead in the grisly DC horror. Will it be too shocking for comic book fans? Exactly 13 years ago this month, Tom Rhys Harries was hanging by his ankles from a meat hook every night. Playing a teenage rock’n’roll idol abducted by gangsters in a revival of Jez Butterworth’s Mojo…
Key points
- Tom Rhys Harries, 36, born in Cardiff, plays Matt Hagen in DC's Clayface.
- The film is a horror-tinged superhero story set in Gotham City.
- Harries spent three months auditioning for the role for James Gunn and Matt Reeves.
Tom Rhys Harries, the 36-year-old actor born in Cardiff, has taken the title role in Clayface, a violent DC Comics supervillain blockbuster set in Batman's Gotham City. The film places him alongside other Brits in the comic-book universe, including Tom Holland, Robert Pattinson and David Jonsson.
Harries spent three months auditioning for producers James Gunn and Matt Reeves. Asked how he stayed sane during that time, he said: "I didn't."
The character and the horror
Harries plays rising star Matt Hagen, who has just received his first Oscar nomination when he sleeps with the girlfriend of a razor-wielding mob boss. His face is slashed and his career ruined; his only hope is scientist Dr Caitlyn Corr (Naomi Ackie) and her miracle serum, which restores his looks and lets him change appearance at will but brings unstable side effects.
In one scene his eyelids melt and he snips at the sticky mess with nail scissors. Harries calls it "the film's tipping point of ickiness". The film is described as closer to horror than anything in the superhero canon, a cross between Darkman and The Substance.
I felt ready to do this. Had I been younger, I'd have been suffocated by the insecurity of wanting to do a good job but not having that quiet trust in getting there.
— Tom Rhys Harries
Career and industry doubts
Harries was diagnosed with ADHD at seven and has said he would not be doing this job without it. He has played rock stars and posh boys, including roles in Mojo, Hunky Dory, Slaughterhouse Rulez and White Lines.
Clayface arrives at a precarious time for comic book movies not featuring Batman, Spider-Man or the Avengers, after box office disasters such as The Marvels and Joker: Folie à Deux. Harries said the film is "trying to do something different in a space that is asking for that".
