Women of Action: Melinda Clarke – Spawn
I’ve always found the 1997 Spawn feature film to be a very underrated comic book adaptation. It probably could have used a little more edge to it. It was rated R, but it wasn’t nearly “hard” enough of an R for most people. Spawn creator Todd McFarlane had a great deal of creative control of the movie after selling it to New Line Cinema. While many elements of the character made it from the pages to the screens, the one character that was absent was Spawn’s original killer Chapel. For you film fans, you’ll notice that the role of Al Simmons’ killer is taken by an equally deadly, and far more lovely character by the name of Jessica Priest.
Fans of Melinda Clarke have come to know her for her roles in Return of the Living Dead 3 and Xena: Warrior Princess but nothing could prepare them for her role in Spawn as the devious assassin Jessica Priest.
Priest is the cohort of the very villainous Jason Wynn, played by Martin Sheen. Wynn and Priest team up to kill Al Simmons in a ridiculous scheme that would turn Simmons into the Hellspawn leader of the armies of Hell and while Wynn devises the plan, it’s Priest who pulls the trigger. Word is that Sheen took the role on after admitting that he wanted to work on a comic book film. My guess is that Clarke won the role for various other reasons.
Spawn is reportedly getting a reboot sometime this year from Todd McFarlane so let’s hope that he finds a role for the beautiful Melinda Clarke and maybe a larger role for the badass that is Jessica Priest.
