FOREWORD BY ANITA EKBERG Federico always loved beautiful women—and I was a beautiful woman! Of course he wanted me in his film, La Dolce Vita. It was a match made in heaven! He didn’t write scripts. He just imagined the sequence of images he wanted for his film and told us, the actors, to improvise within that framework—well, more or less! Nothing like this happens in filmmaking today. That was, indeed, another world. I wish that young people, who virtually live through the Internet nowadays, could know what it was like at the time. What it was like to work with Federico, to be a star in Rome, where everyone loved me. When it was possible to walk freely down the Via Veneto without worrying, even with the “paparazzi” calling you by name: “Anita, look this way!” Click! “Anita, an autograph please!” Click! Click! Click! Federico and I were happy in each other’s company and on the set. I helped to make his name and he made me even more famous. Giulietta, his wife, was very jealous, but I rarely saw her. Fellini was an artist, an eccentric personality and egocentric. He courted women in a platonic way. To be honest, I never quite understood his relationship with women and sex. We were good friends. He would phone me, “Anitona, let’s go out for lunch”, or he would come by my house in the countryside, near Rome. I was good at preparing some special gourmet dishes and he was a “bon viveur”. We clicked glasses and drank the wonderful local wine together. All my love to the young of today, and to the now older boys and girls who knew us and enjoyed life in the ‘60s, and to those who find out about us through this beautiful book.

Thank you,ANITA EKBERG – Rome, 2014

OPPOSITE Anita Ekberg, 1956

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AN INTERVIEW WITH ANITA EKBERG MANOAH BOWMAN: How did you get the role in La Dolce Vita?

ANITA EKBERG: Federico saw me driving around in my Mercedes 300 SL so he contacted my agent, William Morris, who had an office in Rome. I asked William, “Who is Federico Fellini?”

MB: Was the scene in the fountain from La Dolce Vita scripted or improvised? How did you feel about shooting that scene?

AE: It was improvised. I often walked barefoot and cut myself. The Trevi Fountain was nearby and I washed my foot in the water. This was August 1958 or ‘59. That’s how Federico got the idea, but he shot the scene in winter.

MB: What is the main difference between working on Hollywood studio films and the Italian ones?

AE: Filming in Hollywood was very well organized. I was so surprised when I was told that Fellini had no script to give me! He told us what he wanted us to do once we were on the set.

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