In an episode of the BBC programme Talking Pictures, viewers were able to look back on the life of Hollywood icon Sophia Loren. A selection of candid interviews with the Italian actress were unearthed, with Sophia talking about her life, career and relationships. In one, she spoke about the differences she had with Marilyn Monroe.
She spoke frankly about the fellow silver screen star’s untimely death while being interviewed on the show Pebble Mill in 1979.
Reflecting on Marilyn’s death, Sophia said: “I never met Marilyn but I thought she died because she couldn’t endure it any longer to be alone.
“I think she had no friends and I think she killed herself – not because she was getting too old as when she killed herself she was about 36 years old.
“She was very young,” Sophia added. “I thought she could not stand it any longer to be alone and she had no friends to talk to.”
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Marilyn died of a reported barbiturate overdose in 1962 at her home in Brentwood, California.
The actress was discovered lying face down on her bed with a telephone in her hand surrounded by empty bottles of pills which were prescribed to treat her depression.
Following an investigation, police concluded her death was “caused by a self-administered overdose of sedative drugs and that the mode of death is probable suicide”.
Sophie added: “She had no one to release her soul of the burdens that maybe she had – I don’t know.”
Elsewhere on the Talking Pictures episode, Sophia opened up about her appearance in an interview for Film 79.
The brunette beauty discussed the criticism she received from cameramen who thought her nose was too long.
“There were so many cameramen,” she began. “They said that my nose looked too long and they couldn’t light it.
“So when my husband told me that I maybe I should shorten my nose a little bit I said, ‘No, I don’t think so.'”
The actress explained she was confident with her image and told her husband: “I think that I’d like to stick to my nose because I like the way I look and I think you have to change cameramen.
“If you do change the cameramen then maybe I have a chance in the movies, otherwise I change everything or maybe I will never be in the movies because I like the way I look.”
Sophia added: “I am not complex about my nose, so I didn’t and here I am with my nose…Long nose but nice.”
Talking Pictures episodes are available to watch on BBC iPlayer.