5 foreign actors who speak Italian well: how did they manage it?

5 foreign actors who speak Italian well: how did they manage it?

Speaking Italian well: for many foreigners it seems to be an insurmountable obstacle, mainly due to the widespread belief that the Italian language is governed by a very complicated and articulate grammar. Surely there is some truth to it, as they explain at Clidante School in Rome (the best in teaching Italian language for foreigners): Italian is a beautiful language full of grammatical rules. But absolutely not impossible to learn, on the contrary! Ciò che sta alla base dell’apprendimento dell’italiano è innanzitutto una forte passione per questa lingua. Passion is the driving force behind everything: it would seem to be the commercial for the many, many foreign actors who speak Italian well. But how did they learn the Italian language so well? Let’s take a closer look at 5 foreign actors who speak Italian well to glean their secrets of learning our language.

5 foreign actors who speak Italian well, let’s get to know them!
Let’s start with Oscar-winner Jodie Foster, a well-known face in Hollywood who apparently had the opportunity to study Italian back in her college days as her main foreign language. Foster was then able to put her knowledge of Italian to good use as early as 1977, when she found herself starring alongside such giants of Italian cinema as Ugo Tognazzi and Gigi Proietti in the film ‘Il Casotto,’ by Sergio Citti.

From the United States we move on to Spain, where the talented and sensual Penélope Cruz enchants on the big screen thanks in part to her knowledge of Italian. Speaking good Italian meant to her participating in several notable domestic productions: her performances in Sergio Castellitto’s films, ‘Non ti Muovere’ and ‘Venuto al Mondo’, are unforgettable.

For handsome French actor Vincent Cassel, on the other hand, the study of Italian is closely linked to his 14-year marriage to actress Monica Bellucci, with two daughters in common. In addition to learning Italian for private matters, Cassel has also been able to use his knowledge of Italian in the work environment (such as in Matteo Garrone’s award-winning film ‘Racconto dei Racconti’).

And what about the British actor Colin Firth? For him, the passion for Italian was born as early as 1997, when he married Roman producer Livia Giuggioli. But for Firth, his love for our beautiful country does not end there: he also bought a house in Umbria where he spends much of his time when he is not busy with work.

Finally, let’s close this roundup of foreign actors who speak Italian well with the great Clint Eastwood: who would have expected the cold-eyed cowboy to speak Italian well? And it is indeed so, the American actor had the opportunity to work with the great Italian director Sergio Leone and thanks to him acquire a very rich vocabulary including dialectal expressions.

In our Italian language school in Rome, the foreign student is stimulated to learn Italian also by watching movies or watching plays in Italian language, so as to absorb even more easily and automatically both grammatical rules and idiomatic forms.