Quotes

[on director Riccardo Freda] We went out in the evenings, while shooting "Nel segno di Roma": Anita Ekberg, Jacques Sernas, Riccardo Freda and me. One night when the four of us went to a restaurant, I found myself alone in front of Freda. He eagerly courted me, telling me how he had launched [the career of Giana Maria] Canale and that he had just added a dialogue scene specially written for me, in the film that we were shooting. I thanked him but I did not give in to his advances. When the shoot was over, he told me that he would have to cut my dialogue scene. I told him that if he did that, I would have to cut him his balls.

[on cinema] How can you dance, I mean, how can you externalize something that is within yourself, and at the same time think of the camera, the limits of the shot, the makeup, the censorship? The cinema was not made for me.

[on secrets] My secret? The exploitation of the assets that nature gave me, and of the situations and accessories. Relaxation, relaxation and more relaxation. The best assets of seduction.

[on dancing] In Cuba, my husband forbade me to dance. So... I chose to dance. I left for Singapore, where Prince Abdel Aman had proposed me marriage. Alas! I was divorced, but the law of Lahore forbids princes to marry divorced women. I returned to Paris, I was hired by the Folies Bergère for its corps de ballet, until the day when I was proposed to replace the star Yvette Ménard.