‘Clayface’ Director James Watkins on Why He “Auditioned the Hell” Out of Star Tom Rhys Harries

Clayface, the new DC Studios film, centers on a Hollywood movie star named Tom Hagen who is left grossly disfigured following a violent attack orchestrated by a Gotham mob boss. Desperate to get that handsome life back, Hagen undergoes an experimental procedure that initially works only to give way to a scary new reality with shape-shifting skin. Enter Clayface.

Because it’s a dual role in a body horror thriller, the casting process to find a leading man up to the task was a real beast. “I auditioned the hell out of him,” filmmaker James Watkins told The Hollywood Reporter of finding Mr. Hagen/Clayface in Welsh actor Tom Rhys Harries. “He came in, and I thought he really had something but I wanted to explore it. So we spent time exploring it.”

Watkins, speaking at the film’s world premiere on Tuesday night at Hollywood Legion Theater, said he brought in a host of actors but Harries had something special. “I don’t think I’ve ever auditioned anyone that much,” he added. “There was just a sense that Tom had something and [the audition process helped] me explore the character and understand the character.”

Harries, who had worked across film and television with credits on such projects as Suspicion, White Lines, The Return, Chewing Gum, Jekyll and Hyde and Unforgotten, had no issues with the lengthy process.

“It was spread out over three months and I did two fairly long screen tests with James,” he recalled. “But I’m untested in this space, so I was glad he did it with me really because it meant that we’d had time to workshop the thing before he got onto set.”

Naomi Ackie, who plays the scientist charged with Hagen’s experimental procedure, praised how her co-star shouldered what was a very challenging role. “He’s awesome. He’s hardworking. He comes into the room with so much enthusiasm, but like a lightness. And for this role, it’s actually really hard what he’s doing. I feel like people, when they see it, will understand why,” said Ackie, who also had a front row seat working with another DC star, Robert Pattinson, when they filmed Mickey 17. “He has to go through so many changes, transformations, and he has to track that emotion all the way through and make people kind of love him and want him to win in a way. And he did it with so much grace, so much attention to detail whilst being a really funny, nice guy.”

Producer Lynn Harris, who works as Matt Reeves’ producing partner, also touched on the delicate balance Harries had to walk in order to pull off the role. “The idea was to examine a story from Matt Hagen’s perspective with the empathy you might have for this guy who’s just a regular guy that makes a terrible, terrible choice that affects him for the rest of his life. Doing that from a very, very grounded emotional place was an exciting journey to me and to Matt,” she said of the project, which initially came in as a pitch and first draft from horror maestro Mike Flanagan, who eventually had to depart for all of the projects he was juggling from Carrie to the upcoming The Exorcist: Martyrs. Hossein Amini did another draft and Watkins filled in to direct.

“Watkins came in and had a great take, and he saw it in the same way that we did in terms of it being super grounded, very emotional, very character driven. It sort of got the core tragedy of the character,” Harries added.

Watkins for one can’t wait to see how the film plays when it goes wide because from what he’s seen so far, preview audiences and critics alike are digging it. “It’s a rollercoaster ride. It’s got a lot of horror, a lot of heart, and a lot of humor. It’s a full meal,” he teased. “Look for me, I like horror that gets under people’s skin. I like horror that isn’t just jump scares or mechanical or clockwork. I like horror that’s relatable. And what’s more relatable than our fears for what can happen to our bodies, how they can betray us, all those sorts of things.”

So what was the hardest scene for Harries to pull off? “Oh man. The hardest scene was a scene right at the end of the film where I’m lying in a lot of gook and gunk and I was on my last legs,” he said with a smile. “Hopefully it aided the performance.”

See for yourself when Clayface opens on Oct. 23.