Screen legend Sophia Loren opens up about her amazing life, her favorite costars and more in these five facts about her. 

I Don’t Take Anything for Granted 

The Oscar-winning actress has enjoyed fame and success over her decades-long career but believes her greatest gift is gratitude. “It has enabled me to be happy each and every day for all the wonderful things I’ve been able to do,” says Sophia, 88. “And to measure the great distance I’ve come.”

I Have Favorite Leading Men 

She fell in love with Cary Grant while making 1957’s The Pride and the Passion, but Sophia’s favorite costar was Italian actor Marcello Mastroianni. “He was like my brother, he was like my husband; he was like everything for me,” she says. “We knew each other so well, and we worked together in such a wonderful way.”

Sophia Loren wears black dress with lace sleeves
Gabe Ginsberg/Getty Images

I Never Count Calories

“I like to eat simple things, like eggplant parmesan, like ragout. It’s very heavy. I suppose I like things that are not light.” So how does she keep her figure? “I exercise every day for about 20 minutes.”

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 Sophia Loren's Cutest Photos With Her 2 Adult Sons Will Melt Your Heart

I Did Prison Time

“It’s an experience that I will never forget,” Sophia recalls of spending 17 days in an Italian prison for alleged tax evasion in 1982. “I had to be among all these girls that had committed crimes. Forty years later, I won the trial. I had paid every penny!”

I’ll Never Retire 

“I love cinema so much,” says Sophia, whose last film, 2020’s The Life Ahead, was directed by son Edoardo Ponti. “I intend to make movies forever.”