A star of the screen for more than 20 years, Ashton Kutcher has also surprised many with his successful investments. Does he also know how to speak French?
Ashton Kutcher does not speak French, as far as we are aware. The only recorded example of him speaking French is in the 2010 film “Killers”, where he speaks French in one scene. As these were only a few lines, it is probable that he memorized them, rather than knowing how to speak the language extensively.
For more on Ashton Kutcher briefly speaking French and the languages he might be more familiar with, read on.
Speaking French
The majority of people wondering whether or not Ashton Kutcher can speak French have probably been inspired by the 2010 film “Killers”.
An action-comedy, the film follows Jen, played by Katherine Heigl, who meets Spencer, portrayed by Kutcher, on the French Riviera. A few years later, it is revealed that Spencer is a former spy after their neighbors try to assassinate him.
During their initial meeting in France, Spencer tricks Jen into thinking he is French and it’s here that we hear Kutcher speaking the language, also foreshadowing the reveal that Spencer is not quite who he seems.
Kutcher only speaks a few lines of French, so he likely just memorized his lines rather than needing any broader understanding of the language. His ancestry is Irish, Czech, and German, so there is no obvious source of French in his family that might have encouraged him to learn it.
Regardless, it’s good to see any actor making the effort to learn their own lines in a foreign language, rather than just depending on dubbing to get by, even if it is only for a few seconds of screentime.
Unfortunately, the film received mixed reviews at best and made $47 million at the US box office on a reported budget of $75 million, making it a big commercial disappointment.
On a personal level, Ashton Kutcher was given the unpleasant distinction of being awarded the 2011 Golden Raspberry for Worst Actor, for both “Killers” and “Valentine’s Day”.
Even so, Kutcher’s effort at speaking French for the movie shouldn’t be overlooked.
A Multilingual Family
Even if Kutcher doesn’t speak French, there’s more than one language spoken in his home. His wife, Mila Kunis, who he met in the late 90s during their time together on “That ’70s Show”, is bilingual.
Mila was born in Chernivtsi, in what was then Soviet Ukraine, and speaks fluent Russian. She moved to the US with her family at the age of seven and became fluent in English.
The couple has two children together and they are keen that their children should learn Mila’s native language in addition to English.
Ashton has also started learning Russian, with Mila revealing that he received private lessons twice a week, to ensure that they can both preserve Mila’s heritage as their children grow up.
Kutcher has also spoken about his daughter, Wyatt, being able to speak Spanish at an early age, meaning she might well end up being trilingual as she gets older.
Foreign languages aren’t the only ones that Wyatt has picked up quickly, with Ashton sharing a story on “Late Night With Seth Meyers” that his daughter overheard him swearing at the family dog and started emulating him.
His solution was apparently to teach his daughter that the particular expletive in question is not a real word and she should not be using it. This was now a number of years ago, so we can only hope that Kutcher was able to prevent that habit from getting out of control.