German and American actress and former fashion model
Diane Kruger (born 15 July 1976) is a German and American actress and former fashion model. Early in her career, Kruger gained worldwide recognition and received the Trophée Chopard from the Cannes Film Festival.
Kruger became known for her roles in film as Helen in the epic war film Troy (2004), Dr. Abigail Chase in the heist film National Treasure (2004) and its sequel (2007), Bridget von Hammersmark in Quentin Tarantino's war film Inglourious Basterds (2009), and Gina in the psychological thriller film Unknown (2011). She also starred as Detective Sonya Cross in the FX crime drama series The Bridge (2013–14). In 2017, she made her German-language debut in Fatih Akin's In the Fade, for which she won the Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actress. In 2014, she was made an Officer of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.
Family is becoming more and more important to me.
I am a better person when I let myself have the time for romance and for love.
You should be smart enough to know that you don't know everything. But you have to believe in yourself. I certainly do.
I'm not one of those women who thinks beauty is a curse.
The reason I stopped modeling was because I wasn't pleased with trying to portray something that is impossible to reach. Even when I do photo shoots now for films, I'm just not interested in trying to look my best all the time anymore. That pursuit of an impossible perfection seems ridiculous to me now. I'd rather show my vulnerabilities or my doubts than try to be something that no one is.
People always think I’m dainty when they meet me, but I’m really not. I’m very German – we’re not made out of sugar.
I don't believe in marriage. I believe in a commitment that you make in your heart. There's no paper that will make you stay.
Above all, I dislike vulgarity.
What you wear is such an expression of who you are. That's like someone picking out who I'm going to date!
I do give myself a break in my personal life but I think in work, if you don't push yourself you get bored and want to do something else.
Realization that i couldn't be a ballet dancer was a blessing in disguise because that was the first time I felt like I stepped into adulthood. I realized, Okay, this is not going to work out. It was frustrating for about a year because I didn't know what to do with the creativity and the discipline that dancing had instilled in me from a very young age. But then I moved to Paris to model, and that was my cultural awakening. Now, I think dancing has been the biggest thing in my life, much more so than modeling, and it still helps me enormously in my work.
Sometimes you can write a great scene, but when you're actually in a situation and it doesn't work, you have to be flexible enough to make it work for you.
I like the idea of accessibility, coming from a lower-middle-class background myself, I feel like beauty and products should be accessible to all women over the world.
I truly, genuinely like clothes. Making them is an art form, and wearing them is a form of self-expression. I find it very emotional because I can remember moments in my life - my mood, how I felt - through these clothes.
Yeah, to me, acting is very therapeutic. I get out a lot of anger and frustration.
I feel vulnerable sometimes - when I see an emotional scene, for example - and I remember what it took to get to that place, and I fear sometimes that everybody else can see that. You bare a part of you that makes you uncomfortable. I freely give it, I know, but I feel like people know something about me that I wouldn't otherwise give freely to a stranger.
It's taken me a long time to realize that my own life is far more interesting than any part I'll ever play.
The reason I stopped modeling was because I was not pleased with trying to portray something that is impossible to reach. Even when I do photo shoots now for films, I am just not interested in trying to look my best all the time anymore. That pursuit of an impossible perfection seems ridiculous to me now. I would rather show my vulnerabilities or my doubts than try to be something that no one is.
With modeling, you pose. You want to look your best all the time. With acting, you have to be aware of the camera, but the more you show your imperfections, the better you're going to be.
I don't know about style. I know about my personal style.
I feel as if sometimes women can't deal with what's going on and they have no one around who actually understands.
I don't want to let my life as a woman pass me by. There's a time to work, there's a time to be young and crazy, and there should be a time to enjoy motherhood. I'm actually looking forward to that.
A well-cut dress is my personal style. I definitely like it classic; less is more. The thing I despise most is vulgarity.
When you are in a relationship, you want the other person to appreciate the things you like. It sounds superficial, but it's nice.
I have a kind of boring personal life, to the paparazzi anyway, and I don't hang with the cool crowd.
To me, acting is very therapeutic. I get out a lot of anger and frustration. It's maybe hard to believe, but as a kid I really had a lot of self-doubts. My father was very ill - he was an alcoholic - so there were a lot of things that built up for me. And because I was going to a Catholic school in a small German town, a lot of it was suppressed. I was angry and didn't know how to get it out.
It's fun being one of the boys. It's fun to play a character that's rough and gets down and dirty and not to be this precious girl who just sits in the corner and just sort of stands by the action.
Modeling is so... not superficial. Well, I guess it is. But it's boring.
I don't think my generation carries the weight of World War II anymore. But I've got to tell you, even if we don't really talk about it, we get reminded constantly by other people or other countries. I get offered a World War II movie at least once a week just because I speak German and was born there. I have always stayed away from it because I didn't want to be put into that box.
I find period pieces really difficult to get my head around. How can we know what it must have been like to be in Nazi Germany in 1944? The reality weighs on me because I feel like you want to try and honor what happened, but how can you truly know? I have never lived in a war or lost anyone.
Because I worked in fashion, I know that I like fashion. Haute couture is a form of art that I can appreciate. I'm definitely not someone who wakes up every day and thinks about what I'm going to wear, but on the red carpet, it's reflective of the mood I'm in, or the movie I'm going to represent.
I'm intrigued more and more by complex female characters because I'm more in touch with myself. I realize how screwed up or complex I am. And I'm flattered that, little by little, more and more directors want to meet me.
Brad Pitt seems to have no problem getting parts that he wants, nor does Angelina Jolie. Not that I'm saying I look like either of them, but I just don't think that it has anything to do with that. It's the emotions or characters you are able to take on that will get you work, not necessarily the way you look. Obviously, beauty can open doors - it is Hollywood, after all - but that's not enough.
You can learn any accent you want. It's a fascinating thing.
Being German, I think we don't really express a lot of things.
Sometimes it takes courage and experience to allow yourself to actually go into being someone that you're not, and it's the most liberating thing to let go. I do think that's why I love acting - it's being someone that you're not. And sometimes you're really scared of it, and then once you let yourself go there, it's the best thing ever.
But quite honestly, personally, I was much more concerned - I mean, there's not much I can do about my appearance obviously other than spending four hours in hair and makeup.
I know a lot of people think, 'She's so glamorous.' But that's really not me at all.
I get offered a World War II movie at least once a week just because I speak German and was born there. I have always stayed away from it because I didn't want to be put into that box.
A lot of directors idealize their leading ladies or turn them into these objects of sexuality and beauty.
My sport is biking. I'm not much of a gym person, but I like being outside - hiking, canoeing, camping.
I consider myself a 'local' actor in France. I started out in France, I went to drama school in France and the French film community was very welcoming to me when I was a young actress.
What counts in Hollywood is box office. It doesn't really matter what people think of you as an actor because, as long as you have been in a movie that has made money, you will always get another job.
I realized through my personal travels how little I know about certain conflicts, because I was too vain or self-absorbed to ask the questions. That's been the focus while I'm in my thirties - to become an accomplished woman, rather than some actress.
I don't have any romantic ideas about marriage. Trust me. A white dress... ? No. It's not something for me.
I really feel like the first day I went to drama school and I went up on stage, that I found my vocation. It's kind of a cliched thing to say but I really feel like it was what I was meant to do.
In Paris, I rent a bike in the street and cycle around, and in L.A. I live up in the hills so I go hiking a lot.
I grew up with classical music when I was a ballet dancer. Now when I have to prepare an emotional scene, to cry or whatever, I listen to sonatas. Vivaldi and stuff. It's just beautiful to me.
I don't obsess about my weight. I just know I've got to watch it when my pants feel tight.
The real challenge is to give a really nuanced performance and really push myself, to make sure that we see a very complete picture of a woman living with Asperger's. Of course, I'm always intrigued. I learn so much from the show about storylines that actually happen on the border.
Hopefully, every character that I take on, as I grow older, becomes more interesting. Obviously, as I grow older, I have more to bring to the table and more experiences that I've lived myself, so I'm hoping that I can color my characters, more and more.
I grew up loving actresses or actors who were very classy but who seemed a little bit mysterious because you couldn't grasp what they're really thinking. I mean, Grace Kelly always looked impossibly glamorous, yet you could always see there was something behind her eyes.
I dreamt of becoming a ballet dancer. I studied with the Royal Academy of London for 11 years, and that did not pan out, but my love for being on stage was born there. And then, I actually went to drama school in Paris, France. That's where it first started.
Looking back at it now, I really feel like it was a gift because I don’t know if I have the talent to become a prima ballerina. It’s such a hard job to have. I don’t have any regrets about it.
I think they went with the idea that people know the story pretty much- knowing that he's going to take her when she's going to go with him. Also, the movie is really focused on Achilles and Hector and their battles.
I don’t know how you prepare for something like that. I cannot imagine living in a fishbowl like that. I don’t live here so I don’t know it will be that bad anyway because I live in Paris and we don’t have that sort of phenomenon there. So I don’t know, we’ll see what happens.
It's quite a famous story that takes place on Christmas Eve, and the Germans, French, and Scottish are trying to make peace one night and they bury their dead and they play football. I play a German opera singer, in German, which I never have so I am really excited about that.
The ultimate art form of fashion is couture. I completely geek out when it comes to couture. It shows fashion as it used to be. I don't know how many people can actually afford the clothes, but in a way, that's beside the point.
I have three goddaughters - I'm not sure why they trust me, because I have no experience with children - but I try.
Orlando's a really cool guy. They hired him for 'Lord of the Rings' out of drama school. He's very new at this still and doesn't have a lot of experience. So we were in this together and we've tried to help each other out. We felt very equal which was good.
Berlin is still going through a transition since the Cold War - both in what used to be East and West Berlin. I can still sense the confusion and the struggle for identity there in the streets. There's a pulse to it.
I play a curator, the most American part you can think of. My work is to protect the Declaration of Independence. I work at the National Archives in Washington.
Television is also a great tool for women. As you know, the best female roles are often on television, so it's a very exciting time. I've really embraced it. The pace is great, but also not so great sometimes. You feel like you have to make sure to pay attention, at all times, to not let anything slip through.
I come from a very small rural village in northern Germany, and being an actor never even seemed like a possibility. I thought you would have to live in a big city, or be discovered somewhere, or be born into an artistic family, which I certainly wasn't.
Well, I don't know anything about television. I'd never done it before. Initially, it was quite daunting to take on so much challenge and so much time with it. I think it is a great outlet for an actress because you really have 13 hours to bring a character to life, which is so much more than with film, and you have the luxury of time to tell a story and to really color a character.
Her beauty didn’t do her any good and she couldn’t use it in any positive way or manipulative way. I just hope that people will look and see and believe in that hope of love, that hope of freedom, even if it was just for a limited time.
I don't want to live my life in a five-star hotel. That's not real life to me. You can't appreciate it.
I love Nic Cage. He was so much fun to work with.
You have to have the passion. I could not live if I wasn't an actor. If you're just in it for beautiful dresses and movie stars, then I think you should not be an actor.
I'm not a very good impersonator, my friends maybe, but not famous people.
I only dance when I go out.
I like to stay fit by being generally active.
I made a French film called "Merry Christmas" which is a very European film. It's a World War I piece.
Every actor you learn from, take something from everyone - big actor or not. Whether they're big movie stars or not doesn't really matter.
I didn't grow up watching a lot of TV.