One of the most memorable aspects of the 1997 Spawn film was John Leguizamo's portrayal as the sneering supervillain Clown, with the actor going full method for his performance.
While Leguizamo teams up with Spawn creator Todd McFarlane to launch the upcoming Image Comics series PhenomX, the actor reflected on the lengths he went to capture his villainous performance in the fan-favorite film. As someone who studied under celebrated theater director and instructor Lee Strasberg, Leguizamo went as far as to eat live maggots as part of his performance.
"I took clowning classes when I was getting ready for it. I don't know what good it did but I was learning how to juggle and how to do somersaults because I'm method and studied with [Lee] Strasberg," Leguizamo told CBR in an exclusive interview while promoting PhenomX. "When they brought out the maggots, I went, 'Fuck it, I'll eat it! Don't bring out the plastic things, it's not going to have the same effect when you cut to something and they're not moving.'"
While Leguizamo confirmed he is willing and eager to potentially reprise his role as Clown in the long-planned Spawn reboot film, should the offer arise, he did note he had his limits on filming the gross-out maggot-eating scene in the first film. While committing to the performance, Leguizamo only offered one take of the sequence for the production to get right.
"I ate the maggots and it was disgusting and I only did one take," Leguizamo said with a laugh. "I said, 'I'm not doing any repeats so you better get this shit right.'"
Leguizamo and McFarlane first met on the set of Spawn in 1997 and reunited to create PhenomX, which will feature an all-Latin creative team, written by Leguizamo with art by artist Edgardo Miranda-Rodriguez (La Boriqueña) and cover artists Jim Muñiz, José Marzán, Jr. and Juan Fernández. PhenomX follows the wrongfully imprisoned Max Gomez who agrees to be a subject in an underground government experiment. The trials give him shape-shifting abilities and newfound "freedom," but that freedom comes with fighting an all-out war on the streets of New York City.
Written by John Leguizamo, Aram Rappaport, Joe Miciak, and Damian Slattery, penciled by Christ Batista, inked by Sabrina Cintron, colored by Chris Sotomayor, with editor and creative director Edgardo Miranda-Rodriguez, PhenomX #1 goes on sale Nov. 3 from Image Comics.