{"id":717867,"date":"2026-07-29T20:22:18","date_gmt":"2026-07-29T20:22:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/717867\/"},"modified":"2026-07-29T20:22:18","modified_gmt":"2026-07-29T20:22:18","slug":"the-iconic-1963-role-elizabeth-taylor-was-never-invested-in","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/717867\/","title":{"rendered":"The iconic 1963 role Elizabeth Taylor was never invested in"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Elizabeth<\/p>\n

Credit: Far Out \/ Warner Bros. Pictures<\/p>\n

Wed 29 July 2026 14:30, UK <\/p>\n

Elizabeth Taylor<\/a> had muted enthusiasm about one of the biggest box office disasters ever.<\/p>\n

There tends to be both a fascination and fixation among cinephiles when it comes to major box office disasters, as it\u2019s interesting to see why something missed the mark in such a significant way<\/a>. In many instances, the most famous financial disasters aren\u2019t necessarily those that lost the most money, but films that flopped so hard that they have broader ramifications for the industry itself, such as Heaven\u2019s Gate and Cutthroat Island. <\/p>\n

Those are among the most significant box office meltdowns of the past 50 years, not just because they resulted in entire studios folding, but because Heaven\u2019s Gate marked the end of the New Hollywood era<\/a> of studio experimentation, and the Cutthroat Island caused filmmakers to shy away from the swashbuckling genre, and yet, few flops are more culturally remembered than Cleopatra, the 1963 epic that starred Elizabeth Taylor as the young Queen of Egypt, Richard Burton as Mark Antony, and Rex Harrison as Julius Caesar. <\/p>\n

Cleopatra was the highest-grossing film of 1963 and received strong reviews, and even earned nine Academy Awards, including \u2018Best Picture\u2019 and \u2018Best Actor\u2019 for Harrison, but the film\u2019s budget spiralled out of control during a chaotic production, and it ended up being a money-loser for 20th Century Fox.<\/p>\n

The failure of Cleopatra can be attributed to the lack of enthusiasm for historical epics, as the genre that had dominated the previous decade was beginning to fade away. Although Taylor was among the most respected female stars in the world<\/a>, there were concerns about her taking on such a specific historical role, given that she was best known for playing modern characters.<\/p>\n

Despite giving a performance that is arguably the best part of the film, she claimed that she never had a ton of personal attachment to the titular role of Cleopatra.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have never wanted to be a queen!\u201d Taylor said<\/a>, \u201cCleopatra was a role, and I am an actor, so it was fun to play one, but it\u2019s not real. The real Cleopatra had an incredibly complicated life, and she had to be very, very canny to survive as long as she did. For me, the most interesting thing about her was her passion. The things that are important to me, being a mother, a businesswoman, an activist, are all things that were borne out of great passion.\u201d<\/p>\n

Further reading: Cutting Room Floor<\/p>\n

Taylor\u2019s perspective on the film was healthy; while she was able to connect with the character<\/a> of Cleopatra and find things to admire about her, she also wasn\u2019t so invested in the part that the film\u2019s failure was personally devastating to her. It helped that none of the perceived issues with it at the time were her doing. While Taylor, Harrison, and Burton all delivered strong performances, the film simply wasn\u2019t engaging enough to justify a running time of over four hours, especially when compared to more competent historical epics of recent years, such as Ben-Hur, Spartacus, and Lawrence of Arabia.<\/p>\n

Many have assumed that Cleopatra is a role that has been cursed, as many subsequent attempts to make a new film about her have failed. Although there was a unique and thoughtful depiction of the queen in the second season of the acclaimed HBO drama series Rome, the show was unfortunately cancelled before it got the chance to conclude its story.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

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