Joan Collins: 'If I'd done casting couch I would have played Cleopatra'

Joan Collins has revealed she would have played the role of Cleopatra if she had "been nice" to the studio bosses at the time.

The actress, 85, spoke candidly about her early Hollywood experiences during an appearance at the London Palladium on Sunday (17Feb19).

Performing her show Joan Collins: Unscripted, the actress was asked about rumours that she was in the running for the title role in 1963's Cleopatra, which was eventually played by Elizabeth Taylor.

After showing a clip of her initial screen test, the performer addressed the political climate in Hollywood during the mid-20th century, suggesting that bosses favoured actresses that were "nice" to them.

"I’ll tell you something now that we are in the Me Too generation," she said. "If I had been nice to those heads of studios and those people that were running Cleopatra, I would have played Cleopatra."

The Dynasty star, who shared the stage with husband Percy Gibson, admitted that the head of 20th Century Fox at the time, Buddy Adler, had propositioned her when she was in line for the role.

Gibson went on to recall a story that he had read at the time, with Collins joking that she responded to the unwarranted advances with the quip "my agent’s outside, let’s bring him in and make the deal."

Despite suggesting that several Hollywood actresses had made similar deals with studio bosses to secure roles, the American Horror Story star confessed that she'd never been enticed.

"I’ve never been involved," she insisted, reiterating, "I’ve never done casting couch or any of that."