Diane Kruger had a rough start in her career as a model and actress. She grew up in Germany, but her parents’ divorce brought difficulty in her life, thus pushing her to move to Paris to pursue her dreams. After getting gigs as a model, she soon discovered the art of cinema.
She was quite inexperienced in front of the rolling camera, but her stint in 2004’s Troy with Brad Pitt catapulted her to fame and stardom. Though it was a massive success, the press and the paparazzi were very harsh on her.
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Diane Kruger Opens Up About Auditioning For Troy
Actress Diane Kruger spoke with Variety and spilled the beans on how she got her start in the film industry. Her breakthrough happened in Wolfgang Petersen’s Troy, which was not an easy job for her. According to the German star, she had to deal with people who deemed her body inappropriate for the role of Helen.
“The studio didn’t necessarily want to hire me. It was Wolfgang who fought for me. They thought I was too skinny, whatever. I had to fly to Hollywood for a screen test, they put me in a costume and tried to make me look rounder.”
She admitted feeling uncomfortable during the test and the actual filming because she was altered to look like someone with more sensual appeal.
“It was just one of these moments when you sit in an office full of older men who look you up and down. I felt like I was being presented in a way that wasn’t me at all.”
Her co-star, Brad Pitt, tried to console her after the press in Germany made up stories about her and her father whom she had never seen for a long time. The actress confessed to thinking that this scenario would last forever.
“Brad could see I was upset. He came to my room and said: ‘I have heard some things, and I want you to know that you are one of us now. Don’t let them get to you.’ He was so incredibly kind. It really changed a lot of things for me.”
This was not the only time Kruger worked with Pitt, though her next project with the actor proved to be as equally tough as her audition for Troy.
Diane Kruger Almost Lost A Role Because She Was Not ‘Authentically German’
In the same conversation with Variety, Diane Kruger recalled how director Quentin Tarantino initially did not like her for the role she was trying out for because of her ethnicity.
“For Inglourious Basterds, Tarantino didn’t want to hire me. He wrote it for someone else, he wanted someone authentically German, which he thought I wasn’t.”
The actress did not give up and showed the veteran filmmaker that she was the perfect one for the part. Once she was hired, Tarantino softened up and became more welcoming towards her.
“I had to fly to Germany on my own dime, and he asked me to learn 15 pages of dialogue, in German and in English. It was incredibly hard, and I had two days to prepare, but I knew I was right for the part. I came in and he said: ‘You can take your script.’ I replied: ‘I don’t need a script.’ ”
To this day, Kruger has become one of the most sought-after actresses in Hollywood. Her career in modeling and acting, along with her multilingual skills, became her advantage in the industry.
