Diane Kruger Says Quentin Tarantino Didn’t Want Her In ‘Inglourious Basterds’ Because He Didn’t Like Another Movie Of Hers

Diane Kruger should have won an Oscar for her performance in National Treasure (everyone involved with National Treasure, one of the best extremely dumb movies ever made, deserves an Academy Award), but at least she was nominated for a Screen Actors Guild award for Inglourious Basterds. She’s fantastic as Allies spy Bridget Von Hammersmark in the 2009 movie, but on a recent episode of the Reign With Josh Smith podcast, Kruger revealed she was director Quentin Tarantino‘s last choice. “Literally.”

“He auditioned everyone. He didn’t want to audition me because he saw a movie that I was in that he didn’t like,” Kruger explained. “So he didn’t believe in me from the get-go. Literally, the only reason he auditioned me is because there was no one left to audition.” She had to “pay for my own flight from New York to go to Germany [to audition] because he wouldn’t, even though, obviously, he’s American, but he wouldn’t see me in the U.S.”

Kruger continued:

So, I had to jump through all these hoops that definitely put my nose out of joint, but I was like, ‘You know what, f*ck him. I’m just gonna do that and prove him that I could do it.’ Thankfully, it all worked out but sometimes it just seems so unfair, and you’ve got to change the narrative.”

Kruger thinks Tarantino (who she defended after the director was accused of mistreating actors) learned a lesson from the experience. “Sometimes you are the one that puts — and I’m sure I’m guilty of that too — you put people in boxes. You think they’re gonna be one way and then they’re not at all,” she explained. Kruger never specified which film QT “didn’t like” her in, but if it was National Treasure, I am boycotting his next movie.

You can listen to the podcast below.

— Josh Newis-Smith (@joshsmithhosts) January 11, 2022