Elizabeth Taylor has been in an epic Western drama film.
Elizabeth Taylor . She began receiving better roles in the mid-1950s , beginning with the epic drama Giant ( 1956 ) , and starred in several critically and commercially successful films in the following years . She was next paid a record-breaking $ 1 million to play the title role in the historical epic Cleopatra ( 1963 ) , the most expensive film made up to that point . Giant is a 1956 American epic Western drama film , directed by George Stevens from a screenplay adapted by Fred Guiol and Ivan Moffat from Edna Ferber 's 1952 novel .