Hot as she is, Diane Kruger still has the down-to-earth quality of the German girl who grew up in the village Algermissen. Yet her fierce ambition has enabled her to forge an interesting career in Hollywood where films like Inglorious Basterds, National Treasure and her breakthrough role in Troy have given her wide exposure. She also continues to do sexy fashion spreads as befits her early career as a teenage model, who went to Paris at 15 and began working with mentor Karl Lagerfeld.
She was born Diane Heidkrüger in Aldermissen, a small town near Hildesheim in the state of Lower Saxony in Germany. Diane studied to be a ballet dancer with the Royal Ballet in London until a knee injury at 13 forced her to give up ballet. She would soon begin a successful career as a model, working for top designers and living in Paris and New York, before deciding that acting was a more serious way of realising her artistic ambitions.
While living in Paris, Diane, who speaks perfect French and English as well as her native German, got together with French actor-director Guillaume Canet. They were married in 2001, only to divorce in 2006, leaving Kruger permanently disenchanted with the idea of marriage. She is currently in a relationship with Dawson's Creek actor Joshua Jackson, whom she met while working while filming Days of Darkness in Montreal in 2007.
In her last outing Unknown, released in the UAE this month, she stars opposite Liam Neeson and Mad Men's January Jones and plays a Bosnian cab driver who has a pivotal role in the film's plot.
Diane, what was it like working on Unknown, with a lot of stunts and action sequences?
I liked playing Gina, this pretty tough chick who's very independent and tough-minded. It was fun for me to get into her head. The film is really action-packed; it's a thriller-slash-action film with a lot of running through streets with Liam Neeson, who's just so tall and imposing. I felt like I looked like a child standing next to him. He brings that amazing presence, one of those faces that just come alive on-screen. What's great about doing a film like this and another film I shot recently (about a French journalist who gets captured by the Taliban) is that it's a complete change of pace for me. Before Inglourious Basterds I was just thought of as this fresh, young European actress who does quieter kinds of roles. But now I'm in a really good place where interesting projects are coming along.
You were back in Germany for Unknown?
I think being in Berlin and shooting Berlin as Berlin was really nice except that it was very cold and Liam (Neeson) was kind of suffering in that weather. Often, you get to shoot in one city posing as a different city, and you spend time pretending you are somewhere else. I remember making a movie called Wicker Park in Montreal, and it was supposed to be Chicago (in spring), so we were freezing to death. We were able to shoot in some amazing locations in Berlin, and it was a very fast-paced movie shoot, cramming in two or three different location shots a day. That was interesting and added to the energy of the movie.
This also was a very physical role for you.
This was pretty tough - running around in the cold and on ice is not that easy. But I enjoyed it. I wanted to play a character, for once, who was very physical. I like that she had her own story going on and that she's actually saving Liam's life. And those stunts in the huge tank we shot in Studio Babelsberg (in Potsdam) were very challenging. Diving out of a huge car wreck that led into the tank was very fun to do.
What's it been like living in Canada the past few years?
I enjoy being there. It's mainly because Joshua is shooting his series (Fringe) in Vancouver now. It's a change for me because my life there is much quieter. I don't know a lot of people and so I spend most of my time at our house or being with Joshua. It's a nice place to come back to after working overseas for several months at a time.
You don't believe in marriage anymore?
I think a relationship is defined by the commitment and emotions between two people. I married (French actor/director Guillaume Canet) when I was only 24 and that was probably too young. You don't fully realise what it all involves and you are still evolving as an individual. But now I know myself much better and understand what I want out of life and that makes it much easier to enter into a relationship. I've always been very protective of my independence but now I don't worry about that anymore. I'm so much more secure in my own identity and what will make me happy in life.
Where does your independent streak come from?
I think part of it comes from the fact that I grew up in a family of strong women. My mother worked very hard to support my brother and I (Kruger's parents separated when she was 13) and my Polish grandmother was an incredible woman and I always admired her and looked up to her. My ballet training when I was young also helped me learn to be very disciplined because my mother was working all day and going to ballet class was like having a second home or babysitter. If it hadn't been for ballet I don't think I would have been ready to leave home when I was 16 and work as a model in Paris. Being on my own as a model was hard in one sense because I didn't make that many friends there, not at first, but I also learned to take care of myself.
Ever wonder what your life would have been like as a ballerina if you hadn't injured your knee?
No, not so much. Even before I hurt my knee I knew that I was never going to be a prima ballerina and that I wasn't as good as some of the other girls in my class. So after my injury I was already preparing to do something else with my life and I was very inspired by the artistry and beauty of dance and I needed some other way to express that. The discipline I learned from ballet helped me when I worked as a model and that led to acting which I had never really thought about because that seemed like such a far off dream.
How did you make the transition from modelling to acting?
Being in Paris helped me discover a passion for movies and especially for French cinema. Acting was something people told me I should point towards because I wasn't tall enough to become as successful as a model as I wanted to be. But after four or five years of modelling I got bored. I was living in New York at the time, I had just gone through a very bad love affair, and acting was a way of changing my life. So I quit modelling, left New York, and went back to Paris to try to make it as an actress.
You've worked off and on with Karl Lagerfeld over the years.
Yes. I had modelled for Chanel quite a bit when I was younger, and I've known Karl since I was 16. When I started to act, Chanel would lend me clothes for premieres and other events, and Karl designed a haute-couture gown for me that I wore to the premiere of Troy in Cannes. I still have the sketch he made for that outfit. I look at him as a mentor. I often ask his advice on many things and I respect his intelligence and insight. I'm also grateful for all the beautiful outfits he's given me over the years. Karl is a man of immense vision and has a very precise understanding of what he thinks works when it comes to fashion.
You've just finished work on another film, Special Forces, playing a French journalist who gets kidnapped in Afghanistan by the Taliban. What was that experience like shooting a film in places like Djibouti and Tajikistan?
It was a lot harder than I anticipated. There were 18-hour car rides, dirt roads that are not really roads, freezing cold at night, everyone is sleep-deprived, and everything is incredibly difficult and hard. I've broken down crying sometimes, but so have many of the boys. But it was also truly breath-taking, a once-in-a-lifetime experience. I researched the role for four months, interviewing female journalists who were kidnap victims, and I think it's changed me as a person. It made me feel quite ignorant before this, or maybe it's just part of growing up. I always thought I had a pretty accomplished life: having been successful as a model when I was young and who speaks three languages and keeps a place in Paris. But this role has certainly put me in my place a little bit.
