BIOGRAPHY

Diane Kruger was born on July 15th 1976 as Diane Heidkrüger in Algermissen near Hildesheim in Germany. Her mother Maria-Theresia was working for a bank and her father Hans-Heinrich was a printer. Diane also has a little brother named Stefan. At a very young age she started studying ballet. At home in Germany she visited the ballet school Freese-Baus - soon her face was seen on advertising pillars for the school. She was determined to become a professional ballet dancer so after hard work she was allowed to study ballet with the Royal Ballet in London at the age of 13 which presented her with a 4th degree of maximum 8.

But an injury at the age of 18 made a bitter end to her plans. She settled back to Germany and this is where her model career started. At the age of 15 she participated in a talent competition for models entitled "Look of the Year" where she ended up being in the finals. In order to persue this new career she left high school early which proved a horrible time for her and moved to the world's fashion city #1 - Paris all by herself. She signed up with Elite and soon was walking the catwalk for brands like Dior, Yves Saint Lauren, Jil Sander and Armani while gracing the cover of Elle magazine and modeling for campaings of the most known labels.

At some stage modelling proved to boring for Diane so she started taking acting lessons in Paris and New York. She even tried out for a part in Luc Besson's "The Fifth Element" (1997) but the role eventually ended up being given to someone else partly because Diane's French was not good enough. Still Besson proved a great source of influence for Diane who promised her a blossoming career in acting rather than modelling. At their first meeting he told Diane a horrible story so Diane had to cry immediately. He waited for her reaction and then told her to quit modelling and turn to acting full time. Diane was furious at first but later very thankful for his words of wisdom.

At the age of 25, more precisely on September 1st 2001 she got married to French actor Guillaume Canet, most known for his role in "The Beach" starring opposite Leonardo DiCaprio. Motivated by her husband to pursue acting even more she landed her first role in a TV movie entitled "The Piano Player" (2002) also known as "The Target" (2003) co-starring Christopher Lambert and Dennis Hopper. Soon after she starred in a couple of French productions, mainly "Mon idole" (2002) opposite her husband, a minor role in "Ni pour, ni contre (bien au contraire)" (2003) aka "Not for or Against" and "Michel Vaillant" (2003).

But her big break came when Warner Bros. announced the casting of Helen of Troy for Wolfgang Petersen's masterpiece project "Troy" (2004). Petersen was searching months for the right woman to play Helen, a woman so beautiful that she launched a thousand ships. The producers wanted an unknown actress to have the part. Having already read "The Iliad" at school Diane at the request of her agent who told her to film herself, sent the production a video tape. At this time she was already filming her first US film - "Wicker Park" co-starring Josh Hartnett, Rose Byrne and Matthew Lillard. She received a call back inviting her to a screen test. Well it proved more than just one, she had to do a few ones in Montreal, London and later Los Angeles where she stepped into a big office with a hundred of Oscars on the walls, feeling a little intimidated.

But three weeks later she received another call - the production company told her that they loved her very much but they thought her to be too thin for the role so they asked Diane to gain 7 kilos. Diane immediately started eating and eating all sorts of unhealthy stuff so that after just two weeks she had the right amount of weight. And soon it proved worth it because just before production was about to start she received the okay leaving around 3000 other young actresses sad behind.

With the release of "Troy" in May 2004 she quickly developed into Hollywood's "Next Best Thing" - roles are often offered to her now but so far she has only signed on to shoot "National Treasure" (2004) opposite Nicolas Cage and Sean Bean, a movie which is out in late November 2004. But she's also back in the modelling sattle for one more ride - she was chosen as one of the celebs to model fashion in the fall campaign of Louis Vuitton.

But the future sure has more planned for Diane's blossoming career.

Written by Diane Kruger Net with the help of several magazine articles.
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