Tom Rhys Harries is, admittedly, looking fairly exhausted when he logs onto our Zoom. He announces that he’s just landed in New York that day with a double set of finger guns. Then, he runs his hands through his blond mop and recounts the last two weeks of a full-court Clayface press run: “We’re in LA, then went to Toronto, then went back to LA for like 10 hours, and then went to London for two days, and now we’re in New York.”
The 36-year-old Welsh actor has been acting on stage and screen for nearly 15 years, but there’s nothing quite like the insta-celebrity of leading a blockbuster, let alone one set in Batman’s own Gotham City. In Clayface, Harries plays up-and-coming Hollywood leading man Matt Hagen, who has his star-making good looks slashed up by a local mafia boss and goes to sci-fi lengths to have them restored. Instead, he gets a face that occasionally sloughs off into goo—and a violent streak.
The film, in theaters today, has piqued audiences and critics alike as it promises the multi-billion-dollar comics genre something new: body horror. There are no cut aways when Harries has a razor blade slashed across his equally sharp cheekbones, nor any allusions to the Caped Crusader his character goes up against in the comic books. Clayface is self-contained horror, in a year of box office horror hits, filtered through DC’s heightened reality and enormous budgets and platform.
Harries speaks plainly about how “something needs to shift in terms of approach” for comic book movies, and about the obvious hopes that his film will provide just that (particularly as DC comes off major losses from this year’s Supergirl). Yet he seems to handle the pressure with aplomb. How much Harries wants this is not in question. The actor brushes off enduring a brutal shooting schedule with a torn ACL, as well as stories of his months-long audition process with director James Watkins.
To be fair, Harries has had a slow, confident rise to stardom. In 2014, fresh out of the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama in his native Cardiff, the actor made his West End debut as the lone unknown in a production of gangster black comedy Mojo. From there, he went on to The Pitchfork Disney, Philip Ridley’s cult 1991 play about two reclusive adult siblings, with Tony-winner Jamie Lloyd—“a creative breakthrough moment,” he recalls. Harries has accumulated more than 40 onscreen credits, including White Lines, a short-lived Netflix mystery series that he remembers as his first dose of real reach: “Overnight, you’re dropped into people’s homes all over the world.”
Now, awaiting audience reactions to the project that could make him the next big thing, he is clear-eyed and methodical about the potential for imminent creative fulfillment. It’s an unusual but refreshing demeanor for a young talent who seems unlikely to get too swept up in his own Comic-Con panels, as many a super has before. Still, “I’d be surprised if by the time I’m hanging up my acting shoes, this job isn’t a very significant job within the whole time I’ve spent acting,” he muses. “It’s rare to have jobs like that, where you’re aware from the jump.”
How are you feeling a couple days out from Clayface’s release?
I’m excited. I went through a phase of being nervous, and then I was just like, God, man, you work so hard on these things, and it’s such a monumental effort for a film to see the light of day that I’ve gone past the point of nervousness. Now I’m just like, “Hey, that’s the film. I hope you like it.”
How do you feel about facing the superhero and comic fans? They’re a very passionate, but also specific, group of people.
Yeah, but I think it’s amazing that people are that passionate about something, and being passionate’s good. If that manifests in someone pointing out a fault in some world, then that’s okay, because ultimately it belongs to them. By that I mean you create something and then there’s a handover, which is what’s happening now with our film. There’s a handover of ownership, where it doesn’t belong to us; it belongs to the audience. The same is true with those comic book worlds, and this whole industry wouldn’t exist without that fan base being as passionate as it is.
I read that while you were filming this project, you ran into Tom Holland, who was filming Spider-Man: Brand New Day. Were you able to pull him or anyone else aside to ask for a bit of advice about the scale of a project like this?
Have you seen how jacked Tom is? I feel like if I pulled him aside, he could probably beat me up. [Laughs] No, I didn’t. I saw him very briefly in the gym, because we were staying in the same place. I met Tom when I was really young and he was, I think, about 14, and we did this Screen International Stars of Tomorrow thing. And then Tom went on to become Spider-Man fairly quickly after that.
I had a really brief conversation with him in the gym, because we were both training, but I’m so impressed by him being able to navigate being Spider-Man—in a period of time that felt somewhat different in terms of where the comic book movie space was—and being well-adjusted. It takes a special person to be that age and have the wherewithal to navigate that and come through it with a level of stability.
You’re an actor playing an actor. Is it more convoluted or meta than normal?
I think I’d get a bit lost in the forest if I was thinking about the meta of it too much. Effectively, if I was playing a scientist, I would want to do X amount of research to know what the requirements of my job were within that world, but because I’m playing an actor, I just get that for free.
And it also just offers a backdrop for this guy, ’cause he happens to be an actor. He happens to need different facets of his physical body to do his job. But the film moves fairly quickly away from that as a backdrop and a setting, because it very quickly throws Matt, the character, into a fairly existential crisis about belonging and identity and connection and betrayal. You’ve got this guy who’s just pushed to a pretty primal place.
Was there an aspect of what you’re describing that initially made you interested in the character, or that you felt like you could connect with?
I just thought the script that that Mike Flanagan had written was contained—it’s fairly straightforward as a story—but that it felt like it had depth in terms of some of the themes that it was trying to bring out. And that existing within that DC Universe felt like a shot in the arm. Because, for my money, if comic book movies are going to stand the test of time, with cultural significance, something needs to shift in terms of approach. I think this feels like that.
Are you a fan of the horror genre outside of this? It’s a huge year for horror, especially with the new approaches or new filmmakers that are coming out.
Yeah, I am. I’m always fascinated with why people are drawn to certain things at different points in time. The world is doing what the world’s doing at the moment, and so it seems potentially oxymoronic that people would want to go into theaters to watch horror films, but I don’t know, maybe there’s an overexposure thing going on there. I am, insomuch as I’m a fan of every kind of film. I don’t really trust it if somebody’s like, “I just watch horror films.” Or, for that matter, if people ask you what kind of music you’re into, I’m like, “I don’t know, man, just whatever I like.”
Are there certain actors who you look to, where you would love to be a part of the kind of projects that they seem to find themselves in, or even a director that you have on the bucket list?
I’ve got loads—too many to name. I read a script recently by a writer who had been proofreading scripts in the studio and he wrote his first feature. Because he’s been proofreading these scripts for, I think, like 20 years, this guy’s first feature reads as if he’s a multiple-Oscar-winning, very established screenwriter, from my perspective. That kind of thing seems so exciting to me: being open to new creatives, as well as obviously wanting to work with people who are more part of the establishment. Obviously what Curry Barker’s done with Obsession is a remarkable feat for a first-time feature. What Zach Cregger is doing with Resident Evil, and before that what he did with Barbarian and Weapons, is really exciting.
So that screenwriter’s project is what you’re gunning for?
I’m gunning for a bunch of different things.
I also read that while working on Clayface, you tore your ACL and were muscling through this project. Is your ACL okay?
Yeah, look, I’ll show you. I’ve got shorts on. Can you see my scar?
Yes! Right after filming, were you like, “I’m headed to the hospital”?
Well, I tore it before I started filming, and then I was just kind of looking for a window where I could put it back in. Then I booked Clayface, and I was like, Well, I’m not gonna have time to do the surgery. You’re out of action for about two weeks, where you can’t really walk, and then the rehab, so that you can start running or making motions you could do before, is about two months after that. So there was no time for me to do it. But I’ve put it back in since.
I feel like this is another meta layer to this film. You’re injecting all of this nanotech to stitch you back together. Could’ve gotten a little in your knee… Was there a stunt or a special effect that you had the most fun with on this project? I feel like the one that everyone was squealing over—
The airplane.
Was the airplane scene. Exactly.
Obviously doing that is really technical, and you have loads of different departments on set contributing to that scene being done. We had so much fun shooting it, and I know some of the material feels pretty dark and intense, but the bathtub sequence [as well]. When I’m in the bathtub and I’ve melted, there was a real mask. It was sort of like a hermetically sealed mask, and the insurers were off to the corner on set. I said to Watkins, “I reckon I can hold my breath for like three minutes comfortably if you shoot me like this,” which is enough time for him to get the material he needs. The insurers who were on set were like, “Absolutely not. You have to put some kind of hole in that mask so that you can breathe.”
Right at the end, you know the sequence where I’m melting? A lot of that was shot practically, and obviously it’s been augmented in post. It was right at the end of shooting. I was in this fairly skimpy outfit and then covered in goo, and I was on a platform that got dropped down into the floor, contorted into this really awkward position.
In a moment like that, are you in the scene, or are you just like, This is what I’m doing right now, contorting myself and melting into the floor?
I think acting can be pretty undignified at times. I have moments when doing anything where this little voice in my head is like, You are a 35-year-old man. What are you contributing to society?
What’s the best response you’ve gotten so far from any family or friends to seeing either the trailer or the film?
My parents watched it in LA. That was one of the things I really enjoyed most about this. We’re from Cardiff in Wales, which is a pretty small country, and a premiere of a big studio film in LA feels pretty far-flung from my parents in Cardiff. So watching them over that weekend is one of the most special things to me from this whole experience, and being able to share that with them. Then we just did the London premiere, and I had a load of friends and family members come up to that. It’s been such a ride, man. I’m really grateful for it, creatively, and also for being exposed to some of the things I’ve gotten to see.
Was there a moment in the past 15 years you’ve been working where you questioned, Is this really what I want to do? What kept you coming back?
I don’t know how to do anything else. [Laughs] I’m really not joking. You commit yourself down a path, and I’ve had way more noes than I’ve had yeses. I guess I’d had enough positive feedback or constructive motion to keep me in it. But being freelance in any kind of industry isn’t for the fainthearted, and I also think that it takes a certain kind of bravery to pivot, if people are like, Oh, this isn’t working. Some of my best friends who studied with me, some of them fairly early were like, “Do you know what? This lifestyle isn’t for me,” because so much of it is to do with aspects that are not to do with acting. I know this sounds trite, but luck plays a huge part in anybody’s perceived success, and the whole thing isn’t a meritocracy.
But I think it’s important, while you’re doing the work, to hold it close to you. I certainly like giving myself over to projects that I believe in, but then having a broad perspective on what that is once you’ve completed that job. Life is big and important. Ultimately, I just want to be a good, reliable work partner, a good boyfriend, a good brother, son, friend.
Last question: In the time that you’ve been acting and chasing roles, what’s the most offbeat side job you’ve taken?
I used to have to pre-fold paper airplanes. People would have these pre-folded paper airplanes delivered by this little company, so I’d pre-fold these paper airplanes, and that was my job.
That feels like a pretty pleasant one, aside from paper cuts, in the grand scheme of things.
Paper cuts are big hazards within that job.
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