text: Cecil B. DeMille cast her as the Roman empress Poppaea in his historical epic , The Sign of the Cross ( 1932 ) , opposite Fredric March .
simplified: Colbert 's career got a huge boost when Cecil B. DeMille cast her as the Roman empress Poppaea in his historical epic The Sign of the Cross ( 1932 ) , opposite Fredric March and Charles Laughton ( as Nero ) .