How Elizabeth Taylor’s Role in ‘Giant’ Foreshadowed Her Humanitarian Legacy
The epic 1956 Western drama Giant, based on Edna Ferber’s novel, is a towering cinematic achievement that features several iconic creative artists — in front of and behind the camera — firing on all cylinders to bring to life a powerful story that remains memorable and impactful.
Led by Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson and James Dean, the Best Picture Oscar-nominated film won George Stevens an Oscar for his directing. It also earned Best Actor nods for Hudson and Dean (for Dean, it was his second consecutive posthumous Best Actor nomination following the previous year’s Rebel Without a Cause; the star tragically died in a car crash before Giant’s release), as well as a Best Supporting Actress nomination for Mercedes McCambridge.
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While Taylor was not nominated for her acting, her performance in the film is not only indelible within the confines of the story her character is inhabiting, but that character — Leslie Lynnton Benedict — more importantly reflected and foreshadowed Taylor’s passionate real-world advocacy for the marginalized, especially when it came to LGBTQ+ rights and her critical impact on AIDS awareness.
In Giant, Taylor’s Benedict challenges the societal norms of her time — much like the actress herself would do offscreen throughout her life. Her performance went beyond mere acting; it was a profound statement on equality and justice, themes that Taylor continued to embody in the real world.
From her early days in Hollywood, Taylor’s roles like the one in Giant often mirrored her personal convictions — a rarity in an era when stars were often discouraged from making political statements. Her close friendships with fellow actors like Hudson, Dean and Montgomery Clift not only showcased her camaraderie with closeted voices (a rarity in the 1950s) but also deepened her resolve to advocate for those often silenced in society.
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Elizabeth Taylor watches Rock Hudson add his footprints to Grauman’s Chinese Theater at the premiere for Giant
As her career progressed, Taylor’s focus shifted towards her humanitarian work, notably her role in the fight against HIV/AIDS — a cause she championed long before it was considered acceptable to do so.
Her efforts were not just about raising awareness; she was on the frontlines, advocating for research, better treatment options, and de-stigmatization of the disease. (According to Ronald Reagan historian Matt Tyrnauer, when it came to HIV/AIDS, “It’s fair to say that Elizabeth Taylor was entirely responsible for anything that the Reagan administration did publicly.”)
Often considered the first “modern celebrity,” Taylor bristled at the controlling nature of the studio system, but also fiercely maintained her privacy and protected her family from the paparazzi as best she could while living a very dynamic and publicly scrutinized and fascinating life, which sadly came to an end in 2011, when she passed away at age 79.
Taylor’s management of her private and public lives was among the topics explored in the recent HBO documentary Elizabeth Taylor: The Lost Tapes, which can still be streamed on Max.
Beyond that fascinating documentary, we had the chance to get further, and more personal, insights from Tim Mendelson, who is both a Trustee and an Officer of The Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation (ETAF).
Mendelson was Elizabeth Taylor’s executive assistant for over two decades, and was by her side during her crusade against AIDS and the fight for a cure.
“I wasn’t a fan when I first went to work for her,” Mendelson admits, “but certainly became one as my appreciation for her only gets bigger as time goes on and I continue to reflect on the impact she had on my life and the woman I was lucky enough to experience up close.”
He is a trove of knowledge about Taylor’s life, both from his personal experience and his research over many years, and he very kindly took the time to answer some questions about the icon that we had via email.
You can read Mendelson’s insights and recollections below this lovely portrait of Taylor taken on the set of Giant.
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Elizabeth Taylor’s work on “Giant” seems to have been a good indicator for her future legacy as not only a movie icon, but also a major figure in activism and humanitarianism. Can you elaborate on what it was about Ms. Taylor’s role in “Giant” that really spoke to her personality?
Tim Mendelson: I believe there are multiple aspects to Elizabeth playing the role of Leslie Benedict that were good indicators for her future legacy. Up until this point in her career, with the exception of Velvet Brown [her character in the 1944 film National Velvet], Elizabeth went along with parental expectations, studio demands and submitting to Michael Wilding, her husband at the time.
Around the time they started casting for Giant, Elizabeth began to have enough of others dictating her life and started to fight back. Initially, George Stevens wanted to cast Grace Kelly in the role, but I believe she was unavailable, so having worked with Stevens in one of the only films for which she was proud up to this point, A Place In the Sun (1951), she decided to go after the role.
We can look at this as the first aspect of her future legacy: fighting for independence. In terms of the film’s themes around equality, Elizabeth already had a history of close friendships with gay men — Roddy McDowall and Montgomery Clift being the best known — but in [Giant] she got very close with James Dean and Rock Hudson, who were both closeted gay actors.
Elizabeth’s sensitivity to the invisibility of gay men that existed up until the 90s no doubt had a significant effect on her decision to boldly and courageously join the fight against AIDS in 1985, a time when few others outside of the LGBTQ community were willing to do that.
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Elizabeth Taylor and James Dean in Giant
Also, the theme of health equity highlighted in Giant, and Leslie’s part in it, can be drawn directly to what was happening to people affected by AIDS in the early ’80s. In the film, a Mexican baby is dying, and when she calls their family doctor her husband doesn’t understand. Because of his nationality and social status, the baby’s life wasn’t considered as valuable, so why would he have the same access to healthcare as the wealthy, privileged Benedict family?
Then there is the scene where she stands up to the men when they don’t consider her view on politics relevant simply because she’s a woman:
This is interesting given her instrumental role in getting her sixth husband, John Warner, elected to the Senate. If Elizabeth hadn’t gone on the campaign trail on his behalf, there is little doubt that he ever would have been elected. The role of wife was one she always took very seriously, and she would do almost anything to help her husband realize his dreams. But, of course, she was also amongst the most famous people in the world, and naturally that would be a game changer in any election.
Elizabeth was not a U.S. citizen, so she couldn’t vote and therefore was not registered as a Democrat or Republican. However, she certainly had political views, including the importance of the ERA for women. Warner was against the ERA, and Elizabeth called him out on that, even in public. Just as in the film, it was not something her husband appreciated. Very much to the contrary.
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Taylor and Hudson in Giant
What other roles that Taylor played do you think were close to her own self?
The three roles that most closely align with Elizabeth’s true character are Velvet Brown (National Velvet), Leslie Benedict (Giant) and Cleopatra (1963’s Cleopatra).
The first two are really the only roles she fought for and was determined to get. Cleopatra was different. She didn’t want to do it, but used the opportunity to ask for and get more money than any actor had been paid up to that point, particularly if you add in that she negotiated 10% of the absolute box office gross. Coming out of the studio era where actors and actresses were like employees paid a weekly salary, she led the way for independent negotiation and freedom and the sky became the limit.
But as far as the Cleopatra character, there was a queen-like aspect to Elizabeth that Richard Burton talks about in Elizabeth Taylor: The Lost Tapes, that I very much agree with, but haven’t been able to articulate. Certainly not as well as Richard, but then who could?
Elizabeth was warm, loving and affectionate with those she cared for and trusted, but could go cold as ice when she wasn’t pleased. She didn’t scream and yell or ever throw things during my time with her, so it always seems odd when people playing her portray her that way. If she didn’t trust someone or had been betrayed by them it was as though they didn’t exist. As long as she was teasing, harassing and demanding things of you all was well.
So, when Elizabeth, playing Cleopatra, gives Anthony [played by Burton] a hard time for leaving the room without being dismissed, it’s actually because she cares about him. I would say that example, along with her real desire for love, were similarities between the character and the real Elizabeth. Also, the grandeur and influence of the fashion and style of Cleopatra that continues to this day.
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Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor in Cleopatra
Ms. Taylor’s early days in Hollywood seem to have been an especially tough era for anyone who may have been closeted or otherwise marginalized, especially in the movie industry. Based on her outspokenness even in that time, do you know if she was a “safe harbor,” so to speak, for fellow actors to befriend and confide in?
Elizabeth knew the true meaning of friendship, and of discretion. There’s no question that Elizabeth was a safe harbor for Rock Hudson and others like him who were forced to get married to a woman in order to squash rumors of homosexual behavior. Her love, support and protection over those she loved and trusted was unconditional.
One of the reasons she never wrote an autobiography later in life is that in order to tell her own story she would have to reveal secrets of others and she simply wasn’t willing to do that. It went completely against her nature! When it came to friendship, loyalty was everything!!
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Taylor and Montgomery Clift take a break while filming Raintree County in 1956
Along with respecting the privacy of fellow actors, being the superstar that she was, I’m sure she also faced an ongoing battle to maintain her own privacy. How did she balance her personal and public lives? Did you have any indication that walking the line between public and private was a burden for her?
Elizabeth’s personal motto was a line from Shakespeare: “To thine own self be true.” This allowed her to stay focused on her own goals and the truth of her spirit. However, she was human, too and was certainly bothered by people like Joan Rivers fat-shaming her. She laughed it off in front of others, but it hurt her.
Remind I would also say that Elizabeth was an adult. A matriarch and an earth mother. She faced her problems head-on with truth and honesty when it really mattered. She was able to spot bullshit from a mile away and was not shy about calling it out.
Elizabeth had a great ability to prioritize, which was an essential trait when the whole world wants something from you. We could be having fun playing with clothes and jewelry, and a call would come in from a loved one in trouble, or even a stranger, like in the case of AIDS. Her focus would shift immediately to doing everything she could until the problem was solved, and she would pull from any resource available to her when someone was in trouble — including calling the President of the United States.
Contrary to popular belief, Elizabeth did not get involved in the fight against AIDS because of Rock Hudson. She was involved six months before she even knew he had the disease. Strangers were sick and dying, and both the government and much of the public was satisfied to write “those” people off simply because of how they contracted AIDS, but not Elizabeth.
[She] took the commodity of Elizabeth Taylor very seriously and was protective of the part of her that made money: the actress, the businesswoman and the activist. But personally, she was quick to laugh at herself and not take herself too seriously. She laughed easily and had as much fun as possible.
She really embraced life and wasn’t afraid of it. She had an insatiable appetite for life, too, which probably came from her near-death experience in 1961. As much as she loved life and the human experience, she didn’t fear death either since she had a small glimpse into what it felt like.
Elizabeth was not all-forgiving, but she had a huge capacity for it, and that probably gave her more personal freedom than most people. She definitely didn’t hold onto bitterness and wasn’t particularly judgmental or snobby. She pretty much held strong to her convictions and minded her own business, but was the first to admit that she made horrendous mistakes in her life.
I can’t really know how hard Elizabeth was on herself, but she certainly recognized that we’re all human beings, and expecting perfection was never going to work. Her life was messy, but she could deal with it and was always the smartest person in the room.
Ms. Taylor was an early and significant voice when it came to bringing attention to the AIDS crisis in the early ‘80s. Did she clash with the government, or vice versa, about their initial inaction? And how crucial do you think that Taylor’s voice was in also getting the general public, and even health professionals/scientists, to become more aware of the crisis?
Elizabeth got away with things that others couldn’t. People were not only drawn to her, they respected her. There’s no doubt she was almost solely responsible for getting [President Ronald] Reagan to do what little he did, which primarily was showing up and addressing the AIDS crisis for the first time in 1987 at an amfAR event in D.C.
Something that most people don’t know is that Elizabeth was responsible for getting the Ryan White CARE Act pushed through Congress. It wasn’t named for Ryan initially. That happened later on, but it was the same bill.
According to Dr. Mathilde Krim, one of Elizabeth’s amfAR co-founders, they needed 60 additional votes to get the bill passed. Elizabeth volunteered to have her photo taken with anyone willing to vote “yes.” Every one of the congresspeople jumped at the opportunity, and the bill went through.
Many people know some of what Elizabeth did in the fight against AIDS, but the subject is yet to be explored to its full depth.
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Taylor appearing before a May 1986 Senate subcommittee, where she appealed for more funds for AIDS research
Do you find that younger generations are as familiar with and appreciative of Ms. Taylor as the star and humanitarian that she was?
Naturally, younger generations don’t have nearly the level of awareness of Elizabeth as older generations since she’s no longer here and hitting the covers of newspapers and magazines as she did when she was alive, but also the media has changed so much with the invention of the internet, smart devices and a billion places for people to get their information. We’re bombarded!!
It wasn’t like that during much of Elizabeth’s life, when her every move dominated the headlines. The paparazzi was invented to cover her. Elizabeth’s fame spanned decades and, probably with the exception of Queen Elizabeth II, no one can touch that level, then or now.
However, as far as fans are concerned, she resonates as much with younger generations as she does with older ones. Maybe more so, as they can relate to her spirit in ways that older people might not, although their memory of her is deep. We’ve done fan studies, and her fanbase runs equally through all ages, very much including younger people.
I meet younger people all the time who are completely obsessed with her and fully celebrate her. It’s interesting how well they understand her. There is a great deal of universal truth to Elizabeth, and because of that she remains quite timeless and an important role model from my point of view.
We don’t see people like her nowadays, but she was unique in her own time, too. It’s just that she was under so much public scrutiny and judged that it was more difficult to see her true nature back then, I imagine.
Obviously, there isn’t the awareness that there was at the height of her fame and all the decades forward, but in many ways that’s positive, as so much that was written about her was totally incorrect. I believe with distance from her physical life we are just beginning to get a perspective as to who she really was and how deeply she influenced society in the second half of the 20th century.
Remind What other attributes do you think Ms. Taylor had that made her such a one-of-a-kind star and human being? What do you think people could or should emulate about her?
There was so much outside noise in the world of Elizabeth Taylor. In today’s world, the outside noise is unprecedented. Of course, with Elizabeth, the outside noise was about her, but with media, social media and the way we’re now targeted and bombarded through algorithms designed to make it all about us it might be possible to draw some similarities.
Elizabeth’s ability to hold love in her heart, to appreciate and celebrate the good in people and the magic in life as our world appears to be crumbling around us does feel like something that we can all draw inspiration from. I believe that we need Elizabeth now more than ever.
Elizabeth was able to get still, listen and then act with conviction. She took risks and had faith that whatever the outcome, the strength and courage to handle it would come. People might see Elizabeth with her incredible beauty, vast jewelry collection, movie star status and think she had it all, but she was very much a human being. And that “having it all” included a lot of loss, failed marriages, health problems and other challenges, but she got up and kept going time after time, finding the joy in life over and over and over.
One of the most important things we can learn from Elizabeth and emulate is developing a sensitivity and awareness about life and knowing when to step up and fight, everyone else be damned, and when to lay back and simply appreciate and enjoy everything wonderful this beautiful world has to offer.
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