Midmorning With Aundrea - November 13, 2020 (Part 4)

(Part 4 of 4) In her first screen role in over a decade, international star Sophia Loren is back with a new Netflix film directed by her son, "The Life Ahead".

Sophia loren's performance in "two women earned her an academy award and a place among the legends of the movies.

Now, after a long absence, she's back on the screen - in a new film that's all in the family.

Her family.

Here's seth doane.

Script: nats - "are you nuts over my dead body."

In a career that spans 70 years& it's a performance that stands out.

Nats - "and i'm a teenager right?"

Nats - "the life ahead" out this week on netflix - is sophia loren's first feature film in a decade& and watching her on screen is like catching up with someone you haven't seen in a while -- we're all just a bit older.

It was time for me to start again at my age, which i'm not going- to tell you -// maybe you know it already - but it's fun.

It's fun.

It's wonderful.

Since it's public knowledge - we'll divulge: sophia loren is now 86.

Everybody ages - i mean.

Me too!

I'm not a saint!

Me too.

What can i do?

Should i be afraid?

Wonderful // and i look wonderful for my age anyway / don't you think?

I would agree va bene.

Nats - throughout her career, she's played decidedly áunglamorous roles.

Add loren nat her latest, "madame rosa" is former prostitute who cares for the kids of other sex workers.

She lives on the margins of italian society& much like loren did growing up in poverty with an unmarried, single mom in a suburb of naples.

That's why i made the film.

She reminded me / a lot about my mother.

My mother was absolutely like that.

// inside she was very fragile / but she looked strong.

The family connections do not stop there.

The film's director is edoardo ponti - her son.

Who's the boss on- set?

He pretends not to - but he is the boss.

/ even just pointing // she doesn't even need to speak, and it says a lot.

Edoardo is the younger of two sons loren had with her late husband carlo ponti& the movie producer who first discovered her as a teenager - in a rome beauty pageant.

This is the third time mother- and-son have teamed up.

Did you always have your mom in mind for this role?

I wish he did 48:06 / i don't think anybody could've inhabited the role of the character of madame rosa in the way she did.

Quite a resource to have in the family.

// if my mother happens to be such an amazing actress and i happen to be a director, i would be an idiot if it didn't not cast my mother in my movies.

The story chronicles the unlikely friendship between a holocaust survivor and a 12- year-old muslim immigrant from senegal - "momo" played by ibrahima gueye .

His first acting role.

Nat clip: rosa and mo meet for the first time he was really like, uh, somebody that he always been in this business.

I think he was born for it.

I think so.

That's no small compliment from loren& who's played opposite the likes of clark gable, paul newman, marlon brando& and cary grant .

Did you second- guess at all putting this completely untested actor next to your mom in these leading roles?

Thank god i didn't // 58;13 to make sure that he felt comfortable with my mother- we actually, during the shooting, lived together under the same roof.

// 58;30 so he could see her the way that i see her // // 01;58;58 so, ibrahima would get up in the morning and sophia loren would be in the kitchen saying, before we shoot i'll make you breakfast?

Correct.

Correct.

Yes // because that was the only way to create the right bond for them to know each other.

It was a way for the young actor to see loren as an italian mom - not a movie star.

We glimpsed that too.

Had coronavirus precautions had not kept our interview virtual& loren, at home in switzerland, said she would've welcomed us and cooked pasta: la prossima volta - lo faccaiamo.

Perfecto, arrivo, arrivo, arrivo.

Next time we do it.

Loren was the first to win a best actress oscar in a foreign language film - 1961's two women.

For decades she's dazzled audiences with her átalent& but much has been made of her beauty.

Nats - she walks out to the terrace to show murrow her view.

For someone who has been such an icon of beauty - how has your definition of beauty changed?

Or has it?

// it's not important.

The appearance - it's important - maybe in films. but it's what you have to give inside of yourself / your soul / your everything.

The way you believe in things // the way you are with your family.

The way you are with your friends.

It's - that's life, really.

That's a good life.

Loren had taken a nearly decade- long break from acting to dedicate time to her family& until the right part - with the right director came along: seth doane: how is it to work with your son?

Sophia loren: no, not good.

Not good.

Not good at all.

Very bad, very bad, because he knows me so well // he always knows how to push the right button for me to be able to react and do whatever he thinks i should be done.

My mother approaches every movie like it was her first.

And part of her process is, oh, my god - i can't.

And part of my process is no, no, no.

Of course you can.

She really doubts herself?

Every day.

Every take.

Every moment.

// and it's beautiful because approaches it with the same anxiety, the same spontaneity, the same passion as if was her first film.

//01;54;40 do you agree with him?

Yes yes yes, i know myself, yes, he's right, he knows me.

Their film is already generating oscar buzz.

And they're passionate about its messages& of tolerance& and the value of nontraditional families.

Sophia loren: if this film can give an audience the desire to love others and live their lives to the fullest, then // anything is possible.

It must be quite something to be able to come together and make a creative product love, and then you put it out there and the world sees it.

Certainly.

Absolutely // 01;12;09 it's - it's good for my soul.

How?

Because it aligns everything that i love.

My work, my mother, telling stories.

It aligns everything.

Bello.

Bello i have a good son.

And i have a good mother.

I'll say.

That's for sure