For more than half a century Sophia Loren has been one of the most beautiful women in the world, but as she tells CBS News correspondent Jim Axelrod, she was no different than any other woman. In the candid interview to be broadcast on CBS SUNDAY MORING, anchored by Charles Osgood (9:00-10:30 AM, ET), the 75 year-old Oscar winner, who will appear in the upcoming musical film “Nine,” speaks candidly about her insecurities, losing her husband and the liberation that comes with growing older.
Excerpts from the interview are below. You must credit CBS SUNDAY MORNING.
ON HER APPEARANCE:
LOREN: I looked like a sex bomb, but I was not. (LAUGHTER) I was very much tortured inside. I was a woman 100 percent with problems
NARR: WITH HER PLACE IN MOVIE HISTORY FIRMLY ANCHORED IN CEMENT LOREN SEEMS LIBERATED. TWO YEARS AGO, SHE WAS CONFIDENT ENOUGH TO BE SHOWCASED IN A CALENDAR FOR PIRELLI TIRES…ALONGSIDE WOMEN DECADES YOUNGER…
LOREN: I would have never done it [before]. But it was fun. It was fun. Also because– surrounded by– by a very young generation. I saw later the other pictures. But– it was fun. It was fun. It was very successful.
AXELROD: It was sexy. It looked sexy…Is that a good thing? Did you want to get that out, people in their 70’s can look sexy?
LOREN: That is– that’s good, no?
ON THE DEATH OF HER HUSBAND, PRODUCER CARLO PONTI:
LOREN: It’s a very– very difficult…I met my husband when I was 15 1/2 years old. So I spent my life always with him. And I had my two children. And when he died, it was not a strong ache for me. Because I still did not realize that he was gone forever. But, now sometimes I’m faced with things that I have to solve and in life and in my career. So many things. And it’s now that I feel that he’s gone. (CRIES)
ON HER WORK:
AXELROD: Is your work important to you as a way to reduce the pain? Do you find comfort there?
LOREN: Yes, because then you distract yourself from your own problems. And think about the difficulties in saying your line and giving emotions and looking through the camera. Yes. It’s a kind of vacation I’d say.
AXELROD: If this were 40 years ago and you were up for one of those two roles [in “Nine”]. Which one would you have rather played, the mistress or the wife?
LOREN: I would play the wife. I think…That is a role that I would have been very familiar with. Yeah. Even though at that time I didn’t look at all like a wife.
SETTING THE RECORD STRAIGHT ON SPAGHETTI:
AXELROD: I know the very most famous quote attributed to you…
LOREN: It’s not true. (LAUGHTER)…I never said it.
AXELROD: You didn’t say it…”Everything I am I owe to spaghetti.”
LOREN: “I owe everything to the spaghetti?” It’s not true. They put it in my mouth and it still goes on. It’s not true…So silly. Can you imagine?
Rand Morrison is the executive producer of SUNDAY MORNING.