One of my favorite games to play, as someone who grew up in a bilingual household, is to watch a movie where an actor speaks Spanish and decide whether or not they have fluency in the language IRL.
With that, here are some celebrities I was surprised to learn speak Spanish. Enjoy!
1. Ben Affleck
If you're anything like me, when you think of Ben Affleck, you think of him and his thick Bostonian accent, circa the Good Will Hunting years. So, suffice it to say, I was truly gagged when I came across this now-viral clip of the Academy Award-winning actor speaking damn near perfect Spanish and talking about his favorite Spanish word. (It's sacapuntas, which means pencil sharpener.)
Turns out, Affleck has flexed his Spanish-speaking skills on numerous occasions, including in his new movie Animals. The 54-year-old says he lived in Mexico when he was 13, while working on the show The Voyage of the Mimi, and spent a lot of time watching Mexican telenovelas.
He's attributed his love and proficiency in the language to having "lots of Latino friends" and called it "the joy" of his life. Affleck has also appeared on El Gordo y La Flaca, which is how you know he's true to this.
Ben Affleck = 😔 Benito Affleck = 😆
2. Amber Heard
3. Natalie Portman
It should be a shock to no one that the Harvard-educated Academy Award winner speaks six languages — English, Hebrew, French, Japanese, German, and Spanish.
She told America Reads Spanish that she considers Spanish "one of the languages most useful in the world." She added that, while shooting a movie in Spain, she fell in love with the language, culture, and lifestyle.
4. Will Smith
In an interview with Study in Spain, Will Smith talked about how he learned to speak Spanish. In short — by living in Los Angeles, California, a city whose population is 47.2% Latino. Smith has also visited Spain a lot and calls it one of his favorite countries.
Though Smith himself talks down on what he calls his "terrible accent," the actor has given a number of press interviews in Spanish.
5. Matt Damon
Another surprising bilingualist from the Good Will Hunting cast — Matt Damon! — says he learned the language in 1988 in Antigua, Guatemala, during a backpacking trip.
He referred to himself as "the patriarch of a Latino family," as he's the father of four Latinas and married to Luciana Barroso, who is Argentinian.
¡Oralé, Matt Damon!
6. Matthew McConaughey
Matthew McConaughey grew up speaking Spanish. Though he's previously described his Spanish-speaking abilities as "not perfect," he says they were good enough to get by in his majority-Latino hometown of Uvalde, Texas.
7. Josh Hutcherson
The Hunger Games actor learned to speak Spanish for his girlfriend, Spanish actor Claudia Traisac. He calls himself "close to fluent," save for his "bad" conjugation. #real
Though Hutcherson does press interviews fully in Spanish (on occasion) and splits his time between Los Angeles and Madrid, Spain, he has yet to take on a role that would require him to speak Spanish on screen.
All in all, huge news for Latine Hunger Games stans. (Me. It's huge for me.)
8. Jennifer Garner
Jennifer Garner has described herself as "fluent in Spanish" and shared that she loves to read Spanish cookbooks and called the ability to speak a different language "wonderful."
During a Telemundo interview, Garner shared that she learned Spanish in school and laughed, recalling her West Virginia teacher, who spoke Spanish with a Southern accent.
And, finally:
9. Lupita Nyong'o
In case you didn't know, the Academy Award-winning actor identifies as Kenyan-Mexican and was born in Mexico City, Mexico!
Nyong'o moved back to her birth country at 16 and learned to speak Spanish, which is an experience she called "not easy." In an interview, she spoke about being fluent in multiple languages, saying, "You can understand more about humanity. There's so much that exists in the languages that we all speak."
In Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, she had the chance to flex her Spanish-speaking skills on screen, which is an experience Nyong'o called "a straight gift."
Thoughts? Are there any other celebrities you were shocked to learn speak Spanish? Let us know in the comments.
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