Many Hollywood superstars have a knack for learning new languages, and can speak more than one – including Leonardo Dicaprio! Does that language happen to be Spanish?
Leonardo Dicaprio can’t speak Spanish, and his knowledge of this language is reduced to a couple of words. He’s still multilingual, and can speak some German and some Italian, in addition to his native English.
Stick around to learn more about Leo’s language skills, and how he managed to learn more than one language.
Leo’s Spanish Ties
Leonardo Dicaprio often spends his summers in Ibiza and has an admiration for Spanish culture. That’s what prompted America Reads Spanish to ask the famous actor if he knows any Spanish, but it turned out this is one language he still hasn’t mastered.
“I would love to [learn Spanish]. I do speak some German, and some Italian, my Spanish is reduced to a bunch of words but I would love to read books in Spanish as it is an amazing culture. I really like my vacation in Ibiza, [it] is beautiful,” explained Dicaprio.
The Oscar-winning actor also added that one of his favorite authors happens to be Ernest Hemingway, who spent part of his life living in Spain and Cuba, and used these experiences as a basis for his most iconic novels – including The Old Man and the Sea and The Sun Also Rises.
Leonardo Dicaprio may be considered an American treasure, but he’s no stranger to filming movies on foreign soil. Romeo + Juliet is his most notable project filmed in Spanish-speaking country. Baz Luhrmann’s adaptation of Shakespeare’s tragedy was mostly shot in Mexico City and Veracruz, but it was set in the fictional town of Verona Beach.
Parts of The Revenant were filmed in Argentina, and this project saw Dicaprio joining forces with Mexican director Alejandro González Iñárritu. Actors weren’t required to learn Spanish for this movie, but some of them had to master the lines in the Native American idioms Pawnee and Arikara.
Dicaprio’s Language Skills
Leonardo Dicaprio doesn’t know much Spanish, but he became conversational in two other languages thanks to his family connections. The actor has ties to Germany and Russia through his mother Irmelin Indenbirken, while his father George DiCaprio happens to be of Italian and German descent.
Leo used to spend his vacations in Germany with his grandma Helen, and grandpa Wilhelm – which also happens to be his middle name. His grandparents moved back to Germany during the ‘80s, and welcomed him to their home in Dusseldorf every summer.
Despite the fact that many publications describe Dicaprio’s grasp of German language as “fluent”, his grandma Helene said that “a few sentences” were the best he could manage. He found a different way to immerse in German culture – by enjoying local cuisine.
“He loved German dishes. A favorite was pig’s trotters with sauerkraut. But his real loves are homemade potato pancakes and German cold cuts and rolls,” Helene Indenbirken said in the actor’s biography written by Douglas Wight.
Despite his strong ties to Germany, the Oscar-nominated actor has Italian-sounding name since his father’s ancestors hailed from this European country. A few months before he was born, Dicaprio’s parents traveled to Italy, and decided to name their baby boy after Leonardo da Vinci, because his mother felt a strong kick while observing one of his paintings at the Uffizi Gallery in Florence.
The Inception star is conversational in Italian, and he demonstrated his ability to speak this language during a private meeting with Pope Francis, while working on the 2016 documentary Before the Flood. Judging by the video of the two men, Dicaprio addressed the Pope by saying, “Your Holiness, thank you for granting me this private audience with you” in Italian, and they reportedly discussed their shared passion for the environment.
Dicaprio also has Russian roots through his grandmother Helene, who was born as Yelena Smirnova, but there are no indications that he has a grasp of this language, as well.