Julia Roberts unveiled a hidden talent for speaking Italian when she translated filmmaker Luca Guadagnino’s speech at the 2025 Gotham Awards.
Julia Roberts isn’t just a pretty woman.
She can speak Italian, too.
At the 2025 Gotham Awards on Dec. 1, the actress showed off her skills when translating a speech for Italian filmmaker Luca Guadagnino, who received the Visionary Award alongside Julia for their respective work directing and starring in the psychological thriller After the Hunt.
But in addition to revealing her talent for languages, she also put her sense of humor on display. After all, she wasn’t translating Luca’s speech to English—he already gave it in English—but rather translating it to Italian.
After Paul Rudd presented them with the honor, they duo started their bit.
“I not only had a great privilege of acting with Luca, but I will be acting as his interpreter,” Julia shared while onstage, leading Luca to give his part of the speech. Piece by piece, she translated what he said into Italian. He said, “Thank you Gotham Awards,” and she repeated it—in Italian.
After finishing up the joke, Julia went on to share more of their great bond.
“Everyone that is here living their creative dreams, thank you for doing that in a world that seems to be crumbling. This is the tape and the glue that keeps it together,” she continued. “One of my great dreams was to work with Luca Guadagnino, and now that I’ve done it once, I just wanna keep on doing it.”
And the pair isn’t afraid to joke around together while sharing their affections. In fact, Julia went so far as to wear a cardigan honoring the Call Me By Your Name director at the Venice Film Festival in September—so much so, that it was covered in prints of his face.
“I love to do things like that during a press tour, wear clothes with my cast mates’ and directors’ faces on them to show my love and appreciation,” she quipped to Vanity Fair at the time. “I like to have fun and mix it up, and not be serious all the time.”
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