Top 10 Times Celebs Did Interviews in Another Language
#10: Timothée Chalamet French
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As well as growing up in a bilingual household, this actor holds dual American and French citizenship. He would also spend summers with his grandparents in Le Chambon-Sur-Lignon, a small village. While there, he would soak up the culture. This has proven rather useful when promoting his movies in French-speaking countries. If you want to hear Chalamet get his French on, check out shows like France’s daily news program, “Quotidien,” where he’s appeared on more than one occasion. Or if you want to hear him compliment his “Dune” co-star, Zendaya in French, there’s always this live interview with Warner Bros. France.
#9: Colin Firth Italian
Remember in “Love Actually” when Colin Firth’s character learned Portuguese to win over Aurélia? Well, it turns out that this wasn’t a huge leap from reality for the actor. After meeting Italian film producer Livia Giuggioli in 1996, Firth decided to learn Italian. Although, in this case, it seems like he was trying to impress his future in-laws. He became fluent in the language down to the hand gestures and impressed many more than just Giuggioli’s parents. He’s done several interviews in Italian, including one at the Venice Film Festival. Who knows, maybe his next step will be starring in Italian movies.
#8: Joseph Gordon-Levitt French
This self-proclaimed Francophile is so imbued with his love for the country and its culture that he decided to learn the language, too. He even studied French poetry at Columbia University. While he did play real-life Frenchman Philippe Petit in “The Walk,” we’ve yet to see him completely flex his French-language skills in a movie role. Nevertheless, you can hear his impressive skill set in an array of interviews. Of course, it’s not perfect, but he’s fluent enough to do entire interviews with confidence. For someone who learned the language out of a passion for all things French, we have to say we’re pretty impressed.
#7: Sandra Bullock German
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As the daughter of German opera singer, Helga Mathilde Meyer, this actress was raised in a bilingual home. She spent 12 years of her childhood moving between Germany, Austria, and the U.S. so her German is pretty fluent. According to German publication, “Welt” though, the actress seems rather self-conscious when speaking her second language, perhaps due to struggling with its grammar. A plight that anyone raised bilingual will understand. German can seem like a difficult and intimidating language to learn at the best of times. But, Sandra has flexed her Deutsch on several occasions. We’re no experts, but she sounds great to us.
#6: Shakira French, Italian & Portuguese
If you thought that being bilingual was impressive, Shakira’s language skills will blow your mind. Not only does she have a phenomenal singing voice and hips that don’t lie, but she’s also impressively multilingual. In addition to her native Spanish and of course, English, the Colombian-born singer can also speak French, Italian, Portuguese, and Arabic to varying degrees. It’s obviously quite a handy skill to have when you’re an international star and one that she’s put into good use. Whether it's just a few sentences or the entire interview, we’re sure that hearing Shakira speak their language is always a delight for her fans.
#5: Lupita Nyong’o Spanish
Nyong’o had her breakthrough role in the highly acclaimed “12 Years a Slave” back in 2013. It was also around that time that we first discovered that she was fluent in Spanish. The actor was actually born in Mexico but her family returned to Kenya before she was a year old. As a teenager, her parents sent her back to Mexico to learn Spanish. Incidentally, she’s also fluent in Luo and Swahili and identifies as Kenyan-Mexican. In 2019, she also appeared on the Spanish morning show, “Un Nuevo Día.” Although she opted to mix it up between English and Spanish, she does so seamlessly.
#4: Gwyneth Paltrow Spanish
Due to countless family holidays in France, the actor has a pretty conversational level of French. However, when she was a teenager, she spent a few weeks in Spain and totally fell in love with the language and culture. So much so that she’s tried to pass on her passion to her kids by speaking to them in Spanish and whisking them off to the country once a year. In this interview, for instance, Paltrow details her love for the country in an almost flawless accent [1]. She can act, she can sing, she’s a successful businesswoman, and can speak multiple languages. What can’t she do?
#3: Will Smith Spanish
Top 20 Times Celebs Did Interviews in Another Language
Even though the Fresh Prince has been entertaining us for decades, not many of us knew that he could speak Spanish. We heard him speak the language in “Seven Pounds,” but of course, this is a scripted performance that he could have just learned really well. So, the biggest surprise came during this interview when we discovered that he could do a lot more than just read Spanish from a script. His language skills are bueno and the accent is no va mal, either. We’re sure that this is always an exciting surprise for his Spanish-speaking fans.
#2: Tom Hiddleston French, Spanish, Italian & Greek
Top 10 Times Celebs Did Interviews in French
The actor’s profound interest in language has proven rather useful when connecting with his fans around the world. Hiddleston has learned so many additional ones to his native English that we could easily write a Top 10 just about that. Of course, he’s more fluent in some than others but he seems comfortable in almost any language. He’s given interviews in French and Spanish plus showed off a little Italian and Greek among other languages as well. We can only imagine the joy that his fans feel when they hear him speaking their language. As if we needed another reason to love him.
#1: Bradley Cooper French
For most of us, our high school language lessons are nothing but a distant memory. But for Cooper, learning French growing up only spurred his love for the language. He went on to study English and French at Georgetown and spent six months on exchange in Aix-en-Provence. If you were unaware that he could speak another language, you’re certainly not alone. It’s surprisingly rare to hear Cooper flex his French but on occasion, he will bring it out for interviews. Clearly, he needed more reasons to make the fans swoon because just being the amazingly talented Bradley Cooper apparently isn’t enough.
