Hollywood Polyglot

charlidos:

Tom Hardy speaking French! At long last, evidence of Tom’s ability to speak French. Back in 2002, when asked (I presume) to conduct an interview in French he answered  in French that he doesn’t feel comfortable speaking French. But I feel very comfortable with him speaking French! :D

He says it so rapidly but to me it sounds like he’s saying this: “Je regrette de vous informer mais je ne suis pas du tout satisfait quand je parle francais. Non!” 

Anyone hearing something else?

Edward Norton can be heard here from this audio excerpt taken from the French television show, le grand journal during the Cannes Film Festival on Saturday, May 14, 2005 talking about his film that premiered called Down In The Valley.

Translation Source: edward-norton.org

Here, the actor can be heard saying “J’ai besoin de pratiquer,” “Oui, c’est vrai,” and “J’aime beaucoup Jules et Jim” mixed in with English words.

It’s uncertain and there are no actual sources that claim he speaks fluent French, but it’s pretty impressive, nonetheless.

American actress and singer Leighton Meester is fluent in French. 

While filming the movie Monte Carlo with stars Selena Gomez and Katie Cassidy, in an interview she talked about how much she enjoyed France.

“They closed down the Musee Dorsay for us!” she says. She praised France for closing the Louvre museum and the Eiffel Tower at 3 o’clock in the morning for her film (“Monte Carlo”) and how she loved going to Chanel boutique, naturellement, on Rue Cambon.

“We shot in Paris and we shot in Monte Carlo. My last day was jumping into the sea all day and speaking French. It was amazing.”

In these two videos, she showcases her French language ability. For a radio show, she spoke to fans in French and in a low quality (apologies) episode of Gossip Girl.

Monica Bellucci is an Italian fashion model/actress. She started as a fashion model and by 1989, was a prominent fixture in the Paris and in New York City fashion scene. Also in that year, she made the transition to acting and began taking acting classes. Her film career began in the early 1990s with minor roles in La Riffa (1991) and Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992). In 1996 she was nominated for a César Award for best supporting actress for her portrayal of Lisa in L’Appartement[17] and strengthened her position as an actress. She became known and popular with worldwide audiences, following her roles in Malèna (2000), Brotherhood of the Wolf, and Irréversible (2002). She has since played in many films from Europe and Hollywood like Tears of the Sun (2003), The Matrix Reloaded (2003), The Passion of the Christ (2004), The Brothers Grimm (2005), Le Deuxième souffle (2007), Don’t Look Back (2009), and The Sorcerer’s Apprentice (2010).

According to IMDB, the Italian sex symbol is fluent in four languages- Italian, English, French and Spanish. She is married to the French actor and star of Ocean’s Twelve/Ocean’s Thirteen and Black Swan, Vincent Cassel with whom they share homes in London and France.

This interview is for the Italian film “Sangue Pazzo” (Crazy Blood) that premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 2008 with Bellucci as the lead role.

Fan video of Tom Hiddleston speaking Greek, Italian, Spanish & French! 

Polyglot alert!

British actor Tom Hiddleston has made a name for himself on the big screen. He is known for his roles as the antagonist, Loki, in Thor and The Avengers, as F. Scott Fitzgerald in Woody Allen’s Midnight In Paris, and Captain Nicholls in Steven Spielberg’s War Horse.

He’s also no stranger to multiple languages! Alum to schools like Eton College, Dragon School (Oxford), the University of Cambridge, and the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, Hiddleston is supposedly fluent in French, Latin, and Spanish. It has also been said that he knows Greek and is learning Russian.

These next three posts are devoted to his knack for languages.

Long before the late Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis was known for wearing fashion ensembles from the French houses of Chanel, Givenchy, and Dior, she was studying abroad in France.

Of Irish descent on her mother’s side and French on her father’s, her first two years of college was spent at Vassar College, followed by her junior year in the south eastern area of France at the University of Grenoble. She returned to France later, attending the Sorbonne, located in Paris for a study-abroad program through Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts.

When she returned to the U.S., she transferred to The George Washington University, located in Washington, D.C., graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree in French literature in 1951.

During her late husband John F. Kennedy’s presidency she publicly displayed her fluency in French and Spanish, in addition to speaking in Italian and Polish in public.

Here is the television special shot in French in 1961, before the Kennedys were to visit France. The interview aired in France garnering praise from the public who were impressed with her French fluency, as well as her extensive knowledge of French history. She had Puerto Rican educator María Teresa Babín Cortés to thank for that, as she aided her in learning the French language.

British actress Emma Thompson speaks French and Spanish fluently. She studied at the Camden School for Girls and the Newnham College at the University of Cambridge  where she was a member (along with fellow actors Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie and Tony Slattery) and vice-president of the university’s comedy troupe, the Footlights.

Here she promotes Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang in French for  leshistoiressansfin.com

Never mind Pimsleur or Rosetta Stone, you too can speak French by learning from Hollywood heartthrob Bradley Cooper! :D

Yes! More of the “Coop Show en Francais…” Ladies all over the world, melt for your People Magazine’s Most Sexiest Man Alive.

Bradley Cooper in France promotes the DVD release of The Hangover Part II during a radio show for Europe 1

More Shakira showcasing her love for languages.

It has been known that Shakira is interested in world history and frequently studies the history and languages of the countries she visits.

In the summer of 2007 after her Oral Fixation tour, she attended a class in Los Angeles at UCLA, on the History of Western Civilization. She used her middle and last names, Isabel Mebarak, and told the professor she was visiting from Colombia so as to avoid being recognized as a celebrity.