Dame Joan Collins was cast in the title role in 1958, but after several delays she became unavailable. After Collins' departure, producer Walter Wanger considered Susan Hayward, Audrey Hepburn, and Sophia Loren as replacements. Wanger then called Dame Elizabeth Taylor on the set of her latest movie, Improvvisamente, l'estate scorsa (1959), and relayed an offer through her then-husband Eddie Fisher, who had answered the phone. At first, she rejected the offer. When Wanger asked again, she thought about it some more and replied, "Sure, tell him I'll do it for a million dollars." Wanger agreed, shocking Taylor and Twentieth Century Fox President Spyros Skouras. The public expressed great interest in Taylor being cast as Cleopatra, and on October 15, 1959, Twentieth Century Fox became the first studio to pay a star $1 million for a single role.

Film

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