Twenty celebrities who you may — or may not — have known were bilingual

Hola, bonjour, guten tag, hello to all the bilingual celebrities!

Meghan Markle recently demonstrated her Spanish fluency while speaking at a panel in Colombia that uplifted and highlighted Afro-Colombian women. She took off her earpiece and expressed “her deep appreciation for the Colombian hospitality” in the country’s national language, according to Sussex.com.

But the Duchess of Sussex isn’t the only star that has made headlines for demonstrating his or her prowess in a non-English language. Ben Affleck, Margot Robbie, Timothée Chalamet, Will Smith and more have exhibited their multilingualism in interviews and fan interactions. See clips of 20 celebs saying a few words — and having full conversations — in another language.

Meghan Markle

Language: Spanish

Markle got proficient in Spanish while interning at the U.S. Embassy in Argentina and studying abroad in Madrid, Spain. She has previously demonstrated her facility with the language while volunteering at a charity event in 2020, reportedly conversing with a woman “perfectly” in Spanish.

Ben Affleck

Language: Spanish

Affleck told Kelly Clarkson on The Kelly Clarkson Show that he speaks Spanish “passively” rather than fluently, and added that his daughter, Violet, is getting better at speaking the language than he is. Affleck told Clarkson that he learned Spanish while shooting a TV series at 13 in Mexico. (Affleck’s younger brother, Casey, also picked up some Spanish and is not afraid to use it every so often.)

Jodie Foster

Language: French, Italian

Jodie Foster attended a French-speaking prep school in Los Angeles as a child, immersing her in the language from a young age. During an interview at Cannes Film Festival in 2011, the Oscar winner explained that she learned Italian while studying at Yale University.

Matt Damon

Language: Spanish

As a teenager, Matt Damon picked up Spanish as he backpacked through Mexico and Guatemala. His wife, Luciana Barroso, is a Spanish-speaking Argentine, and they’ve passed their fluency down to two of their children.

Margot Robbie

Language: Australian Sign Language

The Barbie star used Auslan (Australian Sign Language) to communicate with a deaf fan at the London premiere of Amsterdam in 2022.

Chris Pratt

Language: German

Chris Pratt studied the language for three years in school, though he admits that he is a little rusty. The Jurassic World actor’s not quite fluent in German, but he does know a dirty joke or two.

Sandra Bullock

Language: German

Sandra Bullock grew up between Germany and Washington, D.C. Thanks to her late mother, German opera singer Helga Meyer, Bullock is fully fluent in the language.

Matthew McConaughey

Language: Spanish

Matthew McConaughey learned Spanish while growing up in Uvalde, Texas, and ay dios mío, he speaks the language well.

Camila Mendes

Language: Portuguese

Camila Mendes makes sure to stay on top of her Portuguese skills by speaking with her parents and communicating with extended family in Brazil via group chats. The Riverdale alumna also lived with her relatives in Brazil at age 11.

Tom Hiddleston

Language: Greek

Tom Hiddleston speaks multiple languages — including French, Spanish and Italian — and learned Greek while studying Classics at Cambridge.

Anya Taylor-Joy

Language: Spanish

Born in Argentina, Anya Taylor-Joy’s first language is actually Spanish. The Queen’s Gambit actress learned English after her family moved to England when she was 6 years old.

Bradley Cooper

Language: French

Cooper studied French while in college at Georgetown University and even took part in an exchange program in Aix-en-Provence, France, for six months, resulting in this très sexy talent.

Charlize Theron

Language: Afrikaans

Charlize Theron, who grew up in South Africa, revealed that she only became fluent in English after moving to the United States at age 19. She still speaks it with her mother Gerda — sometimes to gab privately in public!

Joseph Gordon-Levitt

Language: French

Joseph Gordon-Levitt studied French poetry at Columbia University, which means that we are even more jealous of his wife, Tasha McCauley, because she gets to listen to the actor whisper sweet French nothings in her ear.

Gwyneth Paltrow

Language: Spanish

Gwyneth Paltrow flaunted her Spanish during an Iron Man 3 press junket, explaining that she had studied the language in high school and honed her skill by going abroad to Spain at age 15.

Colin Firth

Language: Italian

Che bello! As if Mr. Darcy himself couldn’t get dreamier, Colin Firth learned to speak Italian in order to impress his then-wife Livia’s parents.

Paul Wesley

Language: Polish

Paul Wesley spent a few months every year with his family in Poland growing up, and The Vampire Diaries star is equally charming in both of his languages.

Will Smith

Language: Spanish

The man of many talents has no problem rattling off a little Spanish!

Timothée Chalamet

Language: French

If the spelling of Chalamet’s name (and the accent mark above the ‘e’ in Timothée) did not give him away, the young actor is fluent in French. The Little Women actor’s father was born in France, and his sister Pauline currently lives there.

Darren Criss

Language: Italian

Darren Criss studied abroad in Italy at L’Accademia dell’Arte in Arezzo. The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story star can also speak a bit of French, Japanese, Spanish and Filipino.