7 Famous Actors Who Know How To Speak German
Actors who can speak fluent German include Chris Pratt, Michael Fassbender, and Sandra Bullock.
Learning to speak a foreign language is not something many find easy to do (or even try to do). Some languages, such as German, can be quite challenging to pick up and even more so to speak it fluently. While we are constantly amazed by actors and their ability to make us believe, it can be quite shocking (in a good way) when they demonstrate the ability to carry on a conversation in another language.
There are plenty of actors who actually have this impressive ability. Whether it be for a movie role, because they have lived in a certain country, or they simply want to learn the language for when they travel for movies junkets, numerous actors incorporate language learning into what they do.
Here are 7 famous actors who speak fluent German.
7 FAMOUS ACTORS WHO SPEAK FLUENT GERMAN
Chris Pratt
First up is Star-Lord/Super Mario himself, Chris Pratt. While “fluent” may be stretching it a bit, Pratt does enjoy himself some of the German language. Pratt explains that he learned to speak the language through three years of German class in high school and though he may struggle with anything more than basic conversations, he is always thrilled to give it a try.
In a brief interview below, you can see and hear Pratt and his ability with the German language when he is approached by a German interviewer (who also spoke in English) at the 2015 Oscar’s Red Carpet with ex-wife Anna Faris.
Pratt’s German was a bit broken, but for having only studied it for three years in high school, his ability to keep the conversation rolling is quite impressive.
Sandra Bullock
Of all the names on this list, Sandra Bullock just might be the one with the most German-speaking experience. Bullock lived in Nuremberg, Germany for 12 years as a child. Her father was in charge of the Army’s Military Postal Service out of Nuremberg, which is where he met Bullock’s German mother.
Bullock grew up speaking German, becoming fluent over those 12 years, and to this day can still speak the language very well. Bullock holds dual American/German citizenship and, as you can see in the clip below, sounds very believable as a German language speaker.
Leonardo DiCaprio
Leonardo Wilhelm DiCaprio. The middle name says it all. Although DiCaprio hasn’t found much need to speak German in any of his films (he does utter a few phrases in the film Shutter Island), he possesses the ability to speak it quite well.
Leo’s Deutsche background is fairly extensive as his mother is German, and he spent a lot of his time visiting his Oma before she sadly passed in 2008. He amazed Deutsche reporters during his press tour for Gangs of New York when he spoke of his beloved Oma and his favorites foods without any hesitation in German.
Jodie Foster
You can count Jodie Foster as another celebrity who is well-versed in the German language. Like Chris Pratt, Foster may not be as fluent as other celebrities, but it is a language she has no trouble jumping into when necessary.
In fact, along with German, Foster can also hold her own Spanish, Italian, and French, a language that she is truly fluent in. Foster became fluent in French after attending the French language prep school – Lycee Francais de Los Angeles. Her ability to speak these languages makes it much easier for Foster when she is out traveling and promoting her next film projects.
Michael Fassbender
Michael Fassbender is another celebrity whose background goes directly to Germany. He was born in Heidelberg but moved with his family to Killarney, Ireland when he was only 2 years old. His mother was Irish while his father was full-blooded German. The move to Ireland was to allow Michael and his family to grow up in the countryside versus the busy city of Heidelberg.
Fassbender has always been able to speak the language and truly showed off his German-speaking skills in the Quentin Tarantino war drama, Inglorious Basterds.
In fact, he surprised many native speakers with his presentation as most claim they barely could hear any American accent in his delivery. Check it out below.
Viggo Mortensen
The term to describe Viggo Mortensen and his ability to speak several languages is “polyglot.” Mortensen has shown off this ability time and again and one of the languages he can use quite well is German.
Along with being fluent in German, Mortensen is also fluent in Danish, French, Spanish, and Norwegian. He speaks Arabic and Italian on occasion and has a fairly good tongue for Swedish, Russian, and Catalan.
Of all the languages Mortensen speaks (he was raised speaking English and Spanish), he claims to feel the most comfortable with Spanish. “I’ve acted in Spanish and English,” he once told Time, “but when something has to do with emotions, sometimes I feel I can get to the heart of the matter better in Spanish.”
Cate Blanchett
There is no doubt that Cate Blanchett is one impressive actor. She has been nominated eight times for an Academy Award, taking home the trophy twice, once for Best Supporting Actress in The Aviator, and the second time as Best Actress for Blue Jasmine. But it was in her latest film, Tár, that Blanchett was at her most impressive.
Todd Field, writer and director of Tár, says the script was written with only Cate Blanchett in mind. When she received the script, it was an immediate “yes” and Blanchett was off to the races. By that we mean she completely memorized the entire script, and not just her lines, but every other actor as well.
The story is an intimate look at the true life of Berlin Philharmonic conductor Lydia Tár, who was German. So, not only did Blanchett have to learn how to conduct an orchestra, but she had to learn how to speak the German language fluently and make it believable. She passed both with flying colors as her nomination for Best Actress for the film proved.
