It's always a surprise to hear celebrities speaking other languages! Welcome to MsMojo, and today, we’re counting down our picks for the times celebs flexed their multilingual skills along their press trails.
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00:00Welcome to Miz Mojo and today we're counting down our picks for the times celebs flex their
00:09multilingual skills along their press trails. We're mostly focusing on celebs whose lingual
00:21abilities extend beyond their native language.
00:25Number 30, Emma Thompson, French.
00:28For many of us, our high school French lessons are a distant memory, but not for this actress.
00:48Thompson took advanced level French exams at school,
00:51but decided to pursue English at the University of Cambridge.
00:55However, unlike most of us, she didn't leave her skills in some box to collect dust,
01:01as you can hear here.
01:12You would never have guessed that she'd left her formal language training in the past.
01:17She easily weaves between subjects and has no problem keeping up with her interviewers.
01:22Yes, she needs the occasional prompt,
01:24but anyone who's ever spoken a second language will tell you that's just how you learn.
01:39We think she sounds très magnifique.
01:42Number 29, Charlize Theron, Afrikaans.
01:46Yes, we're primarily focusing on non-native language
01:49interviews, but we couldn't resist mentioning this multi-award-winning actress.
02:02Theron, who was born and raised in South Africa, grew up speaking Afrikaans and reportedly only
02:07started learning English around age 19. We usually hear her speaking in English,
02:12so it's such a treat when she switches back to Afrikaans.
02:16She did get some flack for saying it was a dying language,
02:20so it's extra special when she shows it some love.
02:34As anyone who speaks more than one language will tell you,
02:37it can be like having a secret superpower.
02:40Well, unless the person you're gossiping about understands it too.
02:56Number 28, Mark Zuckerberg, Mandarin.
02:59The social media bigwig stunned everyone by speaking fluent Mandarin to his audience.
03:10Even though the Meta CEO admitted his skills could use some work,
03:20he showed that practice is the way to get better at anything.
03:24Zuckerberg shared that he learned Mandarin for a few reasons.
03:27First, he wanted to communicate with his wife's family and even told a sweet story
03:32about how he told his future grandmother-in-law about their engagement in Mandarin.
03:40He also mentioned that he was drawn to the challenge of mastering a difficult language.
03:59And if anyone loves a good challenge, it's the guy who co-founded Facebook.
04:10Number 27, Gene Kelly, French.
04:21An American in Paris? Yeah, that's not just a film starring Gene Kelly.
04:26It's basically how you could describe him in real life.
04:40It can't be explained, only felt.
04:43And not just Paris. He loved all of France.
04:46Kelly was a huge fan of everything French and even became fluent in the language.
04:58Seriously, a lot of his movies feel like a love letter to the country.
05:02He even showed off his French skills while promoting his then-wife's 1955 film, Marty.
05:10He looks super relaxed chatting in French.
05:17And you can tell he's thrilled to get the chance to speak a language he adores.
05:22It's like he had been waiting for this moment.
05:25Number 26, John Heder, Japanese.
05:40The Napoleon Dynamite actor learned to speak Japanese while visiting the country
05:44as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
05:55It's not often that he puts his Japanese skills on full display,
06:03but when he does, it certainly sounds impressive.
06:07We heard him speak it during a press conference in the 2007 sports comedy Blades of Glory.
06:12However, he's used it in real-world interviews too.
06:25For someone who claims their Japanese is rusty, he sure sounds pretty confident to us.
06:31The interviewer asks him to say a few words,
06:44and while we're no experts, he certainly seems to say a lot more.
06:50Number 25, Freddie Highmore, various.
07:01We grew up watching Freddie Highmore in movies like Finding Neverland and Charlie
07:06and the Chocolate Factory, and then in TV shows like Bates Motel and The Good Doctor.
07:11But did you know he's also a seriously impressive linguist?
07:20Highmore aced advanced level exams in Spanish and French,
07:31and then went on to study Spanish and Arabic at Cambridge University.
07:36It's clear he kept those skills sharp,
07:39as you can catch him chatting with interviewers in all of those languages.
07:50We're pretty sure they were just as wowed as we are.
08:00To us, he sounds like a total natural in every language he speaks.
08:05Number 24, Daniel Brawle, various.
08:19Brawle comes from a multicultural and multilingual background.
08:24His dad is German-Brazilian, and his mom is Spanish.
08:27He grew up speaking Catalan, French, German, Portuguese, and Spanish.
08:40Those languages have been a game-changer for his career,
08:44opening doors to all sorts of roles and allowing him to promote his work worldwide.
08:49What's cool is how he effortlessly switches between languages during press tours,
08:54which is huge considering how global his films are.
09:08We bet fans go wild hearing him speak in their native tongue.
09:13We know we'd be thrilled.
09:14His ability to do that has really solidified him as a big-time international star
09:20who is able to connect with audiences everywhere.
09:24Number 23, Mika, various.
09:37The singer was born in Beirut, Lebanon,
09:40but his family fled to Paris when he was a baby after the war broke out.
09:45Mika grew up in Paris until he was nine, and then his family moved to London.
09:54It turns out he's got a real knack for languages.
10:05Besides French and English, he picked up Spanish and even mastered Italian,
10:09reportedly in just two months.
10:25The singer isn't shy about pulling out his language skills during interviews either.
10:30You can find multiple examples of him showcasing his talent across the web.
10:44If you're lucky enough to meet him, and it just happens to be your birthday,
10:49he can even serenade you in multiple languages.
10:55Number 22, Donna Summer, German.
11:11Just shy of graduating high school,
11:13Summer auditioned for and landed a role in the Munich-based production of Hair, the musical.
11:25And had you done theatre before that?
11:27No.
11:27No, you didn't?
11:28No.
11:28And did you get the part right away?
11:29Oh, yes.
11:30You did.
11:31While there, she picked up the language, and after the show took its final bows,
11:35she decided to stay in Germany for a while.
11:37It's remarkable to think that this period marked the start of her career.
11:41German isn't the easiest language to learn,
11:44so hearing her speak it fluently is really impressive.
11:54Summer, of course, went on to become an international superstar,
12:05but it's humbling to hear her speak the language that takes her back to where her journey began.
12:11Heaven knows, German speakers probably love hearing her speak it, too.
12:16Number 21, Christopher Lee, French and German.
12:27You know Lee from his super impressive film career and extensive résumé.
12:35But did you know he's just as remarkable when it comes to languages?
12:39Besides his native English, he could reportedly speak French,
12:44German, Italian, and Spanish, and even doubled in Greek, Russian, and Swedish.
13:00His multilingualism came in handy throughout his career,
13:03helping him connect with and find new fans around the world.
13:10We have no doubt that being a polyglot contributed, at least in part,
13:24in helping make him an international legend.
13:27Seriously, we're in total awe of how fluent he was in so many tongues.
13:32We could easily spend hours just listening to him switch between them.
13:40Number 20, Ben Affleck, Spanish.
13:51In the actor's own words, he's a passable Spanish speaker. He and his brother Casey
13:56and their mom spent some time in Mexico while the boys were filming a TV series as kids.
14:01The brothers picked up the language simply from being immersed in it every day.
14:05He sounds pretty good, at least to those of us whose bilingual dexterity
14:09is limited to high school Spanish.
14:22Affleck isn't afraid to demonstrate those so-called passive abilities on the promotion
14:26circuit either, dipping into his second language on numerous occasions.
14:30When he appeared on the Spanish talk show Despierta America,
14:34he even conducted the entire conversation in Spanish.
14:47Affleck jokingly shared that his only concern
14:51is that his daughter is overtaking him in fluency.
15:01Number 19, Will Smith, Spanish.
15:05Even though the Fresh Prince has been entertaining us for decades,
15:09not many of us knew that he could speak Spanish.
15:18We heard him speak the language in seven pounds, but of course, this is a scripted performance
15:24that he could have just learned really well. So, the biggest surprise came during this interview
15:30when we discovered that he could do a lot more than just read Spanish from a script.
15:52His language skills are bueno and the accent is no va mal either.
15:57We're sure that this is always an exciting surprise for his Spanish-speaking fans.
16:12Number 18, Serena Williams, Italian and French.
16:16As the enthusiastic reception demonstrates,
16:25fans were impressed by even the little Italian Serena claimed to speak. However,
16:31the more we hear her, the more it seems to us she's just being modest.
16:36She effortlessly transitions into the language during multiple press conferences,
16:40and much like her game, her skills are a grand slam.
16:47Williams also speaks fluent French, claiming one of the reasons was for her
16:59eventual French Open win. She said,
17:02I wanted to speak French when I won. She also said it was important because it's a mainstream
17:07language in many African countries. She's demonstrated her fluency in several interviews
17:12and indeed fulfilled her dream at the French Open as well.
17:30Number 17, Guy Ritchie, Hebrew. The director was first drawn to learn Hebrew following his
17:37fascination with the Jewish teachings of Kabbalah.
17:52He first surprised his interviewer and Hebrew-speaking audiences
17:56when he promoted King Arthur in Israel in 2017. However, for many, Ritchie's language
18:02skills were a well-kept secret until the 2019 Aladdin live-action remake. Speaking with the
18:09Israeli outlet Ynet, he demonstrated an impressive conversational level of fluency.
18:26Some sources claim that he insists on promoting his work in Hebrew while in Israel.
18:31He shared that he had a good teacher who taught him via Skype.
18:35When asked why he chose to learn Hebrew, he responded, why not?
18:44Number 16, Sandra Bullock, German.
18:55As the daughter of German opera singer Helga Mathilde Meyer,
18:59this actress was raised in a bilingual home. She spent 12 years of her childhood moving between
19:05Germany, Austria, and the US, so her German is pretty fluent.
19:20According to German publication Welt, though, the actress seems rather self-conscious when
19:25speaking her second language, perhaps due to struggling with its grammar,
19:30a plight that anyone raised bilingual will understand.
19:41German can seem like a different and intimidating language to learn
19:46the best of times, but Sandra has flexed her Deutsch on several occasions.
19:55We're no experts, but she sounds great to us!
20:08Number 15, Colin Firth, Italian. Remember in Love Actually when Colin Firth's character
20:14learned Portuguese to win over Aurelia?
20:25Well, it turns out that this wasn't a huge leap from reality for the actor.
20:35After meeting Italian film producer Livia Giuglioli in 1996, Firth decided to learn Italian,
20:44although in this case, it seemed like he was trying to impress his future in-laws.
20:56He became fluent in the language down to the hand gestures, and impressed many more than
21:09just Giuglioli's parents. He's done several interviews in Italian, including one at the
21:16Venice Film Festival. Who knows, maybe his next step will be starring in Italian movies.
21:25Number 14, Christoph Waltz, French, English, and German. The Inglorious Bastards actor was
21:38born and raised in Austria, so his native languages are German and English. However,
21:43he's also fluent in French, which is yet another language that can be heard in the Tarantino movie.
21:49Indeed, his multilingual skills impressed many critics,
21:57but his linguistic abilities extend so much further than reciting lines from a script.
22:02He's genuinely trilingual, and can easily slip in and out of all three languages.
22:19The internet is filled with interviews that showcase his talents for those who are interested.
22:26In some cases, he might even be speaking in one language and drop into another,
22:31mid-sentence, simply because it more accurately represents what he's trying to say.
22:36Number 13, Chris Hemsworth, Bahasa Indonesian.
22:58In a 2015 interview that went viral, Chris Hemsworth shocked fans and his interviewer
23:04by recalling some of his school days and speaking Indonesian. As soon as the host introduces
23:09herself as representing Indonesia, Hemsworth gets in there and rattles off practically
23:14every sentence he can think of. Needless to say, many of us were left astonished.
23:26We may not understand what he was saying, but we know we should be impressed based on the
23:31interviewer's and Chris Evans' reaction. Indonesian is one of the foreign languages
23:37taught in Australian schools, and though Hemsworth admits he didn't pay much attention,
23:42he's clearly retained enough to make light conversation.
23:52Number 12, Kobe Bryant, Italian.
23:55When basketball legend Kobe Bryant was just six years old,
23:58his family moved to Rieti in central Italy. Naturally, while there,
24:03he picked up the native language and became accustomed to the culture.
24:19When he was 13, the family moved back to Philadelphia, but Bryant kept up with his
24:24Italian. You can hear him speak it in multiple interviews, and it's astounding.
24:40He's completely fluent, so much so you'd think he was dropping Italian into everyday conversations
24:47all the time. Incidentally, the sports icon can also speak Spanish quite fluently,
24:52and has done so at press conferences. He truly was a man of many talents.
25:11Number 11, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, French.
25:15This self-proclaimed Francophile is so imbued with his love for the country and its culture
25:25that he decided to learn the language too. He even studied French poetry at Columbia University.
25:33While he played real-life Frenchman Philippe Petit in The Walk, we've yet to see him completely flex
25:39his French-language skills in a movie role. Nevertheless, you can hear his impressive
25:45skill set in an array of interviews. Of course, it's not perfect, but he's fluent enough to do
25:59entire interviews with confidence. For someone who's learned the language out of a passion for
26:05all things French, we have to say we're pretty impressed.
26:26Number 10, John Cena, Mandarin. Speaking at a historic WWE press conference in China,
26:34the wrestler-turned-actor had us all in shock as he delivered a speech in seemingly eloquent
26:40Mandarin. Supposedly, he studied language and music to keep his brain sharp. Cena explained
26:57that he became obsessed with Mandarin at the time that the WWE was trying to enter the Chinese
27:03market. He had two-hour sessions with a tutor to help him learn the famously tricky language.
27:18Cena at one point used his abilities to insult Piers Morgan on Good Morning Britain
27:23and cause controversy by unintentionally and accidentally weighing in on the China-Taiwan
27:29conflict. He's since apologised for his mistake in what we assume is perfect Mandarin.
27:35He's kept us all struck with how easily he seems to nail the language.
27:40Number 9, Natalie Portman, various. Born in Jerusalem to an Israeli dad and an American
27:56mom, Portman grew up in a bilingual household. Indeed, you can hear her speak Hebrew in several
28:01interviews. However, the actress went on to learn French, Spanish, German, and Japanese
28:17to varying degrees. She even showed off some ASL in Paul McCartney's music video for My Valentine.
28:32She's also felt comfortable enough in her multilingual abilities to address audiences
28:38and interviewers in a range of tongues. We all knew that this Harvard grad was super smart,
28:43but being able to engage with fans in their languages is definitely part of what makes
28:48her so likeable. Number 8, Gwyneth Paltrow, Spanish. Due to countless family holidays in
29:00France, the actor has a pretty conversational level of French.
29:18However, when she was a teenager, she spent a few weeks in Spain and totally fell in love
29:24with the language and culture. So much so that she's tried to pass on her passion to her kids
29:44by speaking to them in Spanish and whisking them off to the country once a year. In this interview,
29:50for instance, Paltrow details her love for the country in an almost flawless accent.
30:05She can act, she can sing, she's a successful businesswoman,
30:10and she can speak multiple languages. What can't she do? Number 7, Lupita Nyong'o, Spanish.
30:18Nyong'o had her breakthrough role in the highly acclaimed 12 Years a Slave back in 2013.
30:25It was also around that time that we first discovered that she was fluent in Spanish.
30:30The actor was actually born in Mexico, but her family returned to Kenya before she was a year
30:54old. As a teenager, her parents sent her back to Mexico to learn Spanish. Incidentally,
31:00she's also fluent in Luo and Swahili and identifies as Kenyan Mexican.
31:13In 2019, she also appeared on the Spanish morning show Nuevo Dia. Although she opted to mix it up
31:21between English and Spanish, she does so seamlessly. Number 6, Bradley Cooper, French.
31:40For most of us, our high school language lessons are nothing but a distant memory.
31:46But for Cooper, learning French growing up only spurred his love for the language.
32:01He went on to study English and French at Georgetown and spent six months on exchange
32:07in Aix-en-Provence. And if you were unaware that he could speak another language,
32:12you're certainly not alone. It's surprisingly rare to hear Cooper flex his French,
32:18but on occasion, he will bring it out for interviews.
32:29Clearly, he needed more reasons to make the fans swoon,
32:33because just being the amazingly talented Bradley Cooper apparently isn't enough.
32:42Number 5, Shakira, French, Italian, and Portuguese.
32:51If you thought that being bilingual was impressive, Shakira's language skills
32:56will blow your mind. Not only does she have a phenomenal singing voice and hips that don't lie,
33:11but she's also impressively multilingual. In addition to her native Spanish and,
33:16of course, English, a Colombian-born singer can also speak French, Italian,
33:21Portuguese, and Arabic to varying degrees.
33:25It's obviously quite the handy skill to have when you're an international star and one that
33:43she's put into good use. Whether it's just a few sentences or the entire interview,
33:50we're sure that hearing Shakira speak their language is always a delight for her fans.
34:06Number 4, Audrey Hepburn, various.
34:10As well as being an icon of Hollywood glamour, Hepburn was an accomplished polyglot.
34:16She spoke several languages, including French, English, Spanish, Italian, and Dutch.
34:34The actress was born to a Dutch mother and an Austrian-British father,
34:39and was raised as an English speaker, although clearly not from the East End of London,
34:43if my fair lady is anything to go by. As for Spanish, French, and Italian, she learned them
34:49later on. Hepburn was no stranger to flaunting her multilingualism on the press circuit.
34:55The internet is full of examples of her engaging in interviews in other languages.
35:00We are no experts, but she sounds pretty amazing to us,
35:17no matter what language she's speaking.
35:20Number 3, Tom Hiddleston, French, Spanish, Italian, and Greek.
35:41The actor's profound interest in language has proven rather useful when connecting with his
35:47fans around the world. Hiddleston has learned so many additional ones to his native English,
36:02that we could easily write a Top 10 just about that. Of course, he's more fluent in some than
36:08others, but he is comfortable in almost any language. He's given interviews in French and
36:28Spanish, plus showed off a little Italian and Greek, among other languages as well.
36:34We can only imagine the joy that his fans feel when they hear him speak their language,
36:40as if we needed another reason to love him.
36:56Number 2, Jodie Foster, French.
36:59As a child, Foster attended the bilingual Lycée Français de la Los Angeles,
37:04which is how she became fluent in French.
37:22Her fluency helped propel her career as she was able to act in French movies,
37:26and dub herself in translated adaptations of English-speaking films. Of course,
37:32this also means that she's no stranger to the French-speaking press, either.
37:36You can see her give numerous interviews in flawless French throughout her career.
37:41In 2011, she hosted the French equivalent of the Oscars, the César Awards. As if that isn't cool
37:59enough, she also speaks a relatively conversational level of Italian, Spanish,
38:04and German, which you can also hear in a few interviews.
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38:30Number 1, Viggo Mortensen, various. Arguably one of Hollywood's greatest polyglots,
38:36it feels like there's no language Mortensen hasn't mastered.
38:51The Danish-American actor grew up in a bilingual household but can speak
38:56seven languages, to varying degrees. He's fluent in English, Spanish, Danish,
39:02and Canadian French, and can hold conversations in Italian, Catalan, and Arabic.
39:22He's used his multilingualism throughout his career, both for roles and to promote his work
39:27worldwide. It's a handy set of skills to have, and has no doubt helped cement his reputation as
39:33an international star. Between his many achievements, eclectic career, and an awe-inspiring
39:40array of languages, it's almost unfair how talented one man can be.
39:58Do you agree with our picks? Check out this other recent clip from Ms Mojo,
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