Diane Kruger (born Diane Heidkrüger, 15 July 1976) is a German-American supermodel-turned-actress.
She is best known for her roles in Troy, National Treasure and Inglourious Basterds, as well as two seasons as the co-lead for The Bridge.
She was married to French actor-director Guillaume Canet from 2001 to 2006, and she has been in a relationship with Norman Reedus since 2016. The two have a daughter together. She became a US citizen in 2013.
Roles:
- Duelles (2002): Sabine
- The Piano Player (2002): Erika
- Troy (2004): Helen
- Wicker Park (2004): Lisa
- National Treasure (2004): Abigail Chase
- Joyeux Noël (2005): Anna Sorenson
- Copying Beethoven (2006): Anna Holtz
- National Treasure 2: Book of Secrets (2007): Abigail Chase
- Anything For Her (2008): Lisa
- Inglourious Basterds (2009): Bridget von Hammersmark
- Fringe episode "Olivia. In the Lab. With the Revolver" (2010): Miranda Green.
- Mr. Nobody (2010): Anna
- Unknown (2011): Gina
- Farewell, My Queen (2012): Marie-Antoinette
- The Host (2013): The Seeker/Lacey
- The Bridge (US) (2013-2014): Sonya
- The Infiltrator (2016): Kathy Ertz
- Sky (2016): Romy
- In the Fade (2017): Katja Sekerci
- The 355 (2022): Marie Schmidt
- Marlowe (2022): Clare Cavendish
She provides examples of:
- Actor-Shared Background: She was a dancer like her character Lisa in Wicker Park, having trained at the Royal Ballet School in London until a bad injury cut her career short.
- The Cast Show Off: She's fluent in English, French and German, and speaks all three for Inglourious Basterds, as well as dubbing herself in any French and German versions of her performances.
- Dark Horse Casting: She was cast as Helen of Troy specifically because Wolfgang Peterson wanted an unknown actress in the role. Beforehand, Katie Holmes had been lobbying for it.
- Enforced Method Acting: She agreed to be strangled on camera for a scene in Inglourious Basterds.
- Fake American: Sometimes she'll play characters who are implied to be American, having lost most of her German accent. Notably in Mr. Nobody, she plays the adult version of Juno Temple.
- Fake Nationality:
- In Wicker Park, Lisa is implied to be Czech.
- Downplayed in Farewell, My Queen, she plays the Austrian Marie Antoinette, which is quite mild compared to Germany.
- In the film Unknown, she plays a Bosnian.
- Although she plays a German in National Treasure, she's said to be from Saxony. Diane is actually from Lower Saxony.
- Ms. Fanservice: She's been nude and/or had sex scenes in a number of her roles. Even aside from that, a lot of her roles highlight Kruger's beauty (let's face it, that would be hard to hide). She's fought to make sure her characters are more than just eye candy though.
- Nightmare Fetishist: She is a noted fan of horror and slasher films, and particularly loves Cruel And Unusual Deaths - the more...imaginative, the better. When she was dating Joshua Jackson at the time he was filming Fringe, she repeatedly demanded she be allowed a cameo appearance just so she can die a horrifying and gruesome death minutes after her introduction. Come season two, she got her wish, in what is one of the absolute most disturbing deaths anyone has faced in its five season run.
- No Stunt Double: She did her own stunts in the car chase scene in National Treasure.
- Playing Against Type: It is very surprising to see her play an Inspector Javert in The Host (2013).
- So Beautiful, It's a Curse: As soon as Troy came out, the New York Times published an article that described her as "too beautiful to play a role of real substance", and she admitted that the film held her back because of it.
- Vocal Evolution: As seen in Troy, her German accent was originally much stronger, but she worked to lose it or neutralise it so that she could work more in America. Ironically, by the time of Inglourious Basterds, she had to actually put on an accent to play a German character.
- What Could Have Been:
- Her breakout role in Troy only came about because of Executive Meddling. A very early idea was that Helen would be The Ghost, never appearing on screen, to symbolise how Shrouded in Myth her beauty was. Studio execs insisted Helen appear in the film, and Wolfgang Peterson compromised by looking for unknowns.
- Nastassja Kinski was Quentin Tarantino's preferred choice for Bridget von Hammersmark, and Diane was even denied an audition because he didn't think she was actually German. She flew to Germany on her own expense, learning thirty pages of dialogue in two days alternately in English and German, eventually impressing him enough to cast her.
- She has replaced Eva Green twice, in the films Mr. Nobody and Farewell, My Queen.
