Published on 05/04/2024 at 18:00 by Isabella Bertioli

From Natalie Portman to Tom Hiddleston, these celebs speak multiple languages

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Natalie Portman

Natalie Portman © Roy Rochlin

Portman grew up speaking Hebrew and English, then picked up French, Japanese, German, and Spanish later in life.

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Gwyneth Paltrow

Gwyneth Paltrow © Stephane Cardinale - Corbis/Gettyimages

Paltrow speaks Spanish and French, as well as English. She has previously said that she spoke Spanish to her children at home, and limited their TV to French and Spanish. The actress believes speaking more than one language is ‘a profound experience.’

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Shakira

Shakira © Patricia J. Garcinuno / Gettyimages

Shakira grew up speaking Spanish in Colombia, and her manager helped her learn English. She has since picked up Portuguese, Italian, French, Catalan, and even Arabic.

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Sandra Bullock

Sandra Bullock © Dave J Hogan / Gettyimages

Sandra Bullock's mother was German opera singer Helga Mathilde Meyer. Bullock was born in Virginia but went on tours to Europe with her mother, and is fluent in German. 

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Tom Hiddleston

Tom Hiddleston © Axelle/Bauer-Griffin / Gettyimages

Tom Hiddleston studied classics at the University of Cambridge, learning ancient Greek and Latin in the process. He speaks Spanish, French, Italian fluently and has conversational Russian, Korean, and Mandarin.

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Jodie Foster

Jodie Foster © Gilbert Flores / Gettyimages

Foster attended a French school, and was fluent in the language by 14. Alongside her native English, the actress speaks French, German, Spanish and Italian. 

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Mila Kunis

Mila Kunis © Taylor Hill / Gettyimages

The actress grew up in what was the Soviet Union, speaking Russian. Her family moved to Los Angeles when she was 7 and she learnt English. 

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Bradley Cooper

Bradley Cooper © Gilbert Flores /Gettyimages

Cooper speaks English and French. In 2011 he explained: 'When I was a kid, I remember watching Chariots of Fire. And French is the official language of the Olympics. So there's a scene where a guy was speaking French, and I thought, ‘Man, that sounds so cool. I want to learn French’.

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Diane Kruger

 Diane Kruger © Christopher Polk / Gettyimages

Born in Germany, the actress grew up speaking German. She went to London on an exchange programme, where she learnt English. She later picked up French when pursuing a modeling career in Paris, and also speaks Russian and Latin. 

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Ben Affleck

Ben Affleck © Rodin Eckenroth / Gettyimages

Affleck learnt Spanish when his family moved to Mexico while he was shooting a TV series at age 13. He said his daughter's skills pushed him to brush up on the language as an adult. He joked: 'I don't mind that I can't do your math homework but you are not gonna be better at Spanish than me'.

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Penelope Cruz

Penelope Cruz © Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/Gettyimages

The actress is a native Spanish speaker but has since learned English and Italian. She speaks French in her 2003 film Fanfan, but reportedly learnt her lines phonetically.

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Charlize Theron

Charlize Theron © Gilbert Flores/Gettyimages

Amazingly, the actress only learnt English at 19! She grew up in South Africa speaking Afrikaans.

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Johnny Depp

Johnny Depp © Mondadori Portfolio / Gettyimages

Depp is fluent in English and French. He has two kids Lily-Rose Depp and Jack Depp, with French singer and actress Vanessa Paradis.

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Colin Firth

Colin Firth © Dia Dipasupil / Gettyimages

Firth decided to learn Italian after meeting ex-wife Livia Giuggioli on a film set. He told the BBC: 'I was married there and had two children born in Rome’.

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Leonardo DiCaprio

Leonardo DiCaprio © Emma McIntyre/Gettyimages

Leonardo DiCaprio's native language is English, and he has conversational Italian and German. 

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Sandra Oh

Sandra Oh © Lionel Hahn / Gettyimages

Sandra Oh grew up speaking English and Korean, and learnt Spanish later in life. 

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Lupita Nyong'o

Lupita Nyong'o © Christopher Polk / Gettyimages

Nyong'o is fluent in English, Spanish, Swahili, and Luo.

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Joseph Gordon-Levitt

Joseph Gordon-Levitt © Gilbert Flores/Gettyimages

The actor speaks English and French - he even had some classes that were taught in French at Columbia University.

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Renée Zellweger

Renée Zellweger © Axelle/Bauer-Griffin /gettyimages

The actress' mother was a Norwegian-born former nurse and midwife and her father was a Swiss-born engineer. She now speaks Norwegian, German, and English.

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Zayn Malik

Zayn Malik © Axelle/Bauer-Griffin /Gettyimages

Zayn Malik learnt Urdu from his father, and has since taken up learning Arabic. 

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Céline Dion

Céline Dion © Samir Hussein / gettyimages

The Canadian singer speaks English and French, but has performed in 9 languages - from Spanish and Japanese to German and Mandarin.

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Rita Ora

Rita Ora © NBC / Gettyimages

Rita Ora speaks Albanian and English.

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Jack Black

Jack Black © Don Arnold/Gettyimages

Black speaks 3 languages: English, French, and Spanish.

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Anya Taylor-Joy

Anya Taylor-Joy © Jeff Kravitz/Gettyimages

Anya Taylor-Joy was raised in Buenos Aires, Argentina, until the age of 6 so she speaks Spanish and English.

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Timothée Chalamet

Timothée Chalamet © Han Myung-Gu / gettyimages

Timothée Chalamet is a proud English and French speaker!