National Treasure Star: Diane Kruger

The New Straits Times

More Than Just a Pretty Face

SHOWING off her comedic chops and undermining her supermodel looks, Diane Kruger talks about her role in the National Treasure sequel

Get ready for the comedy adventure film National Treasure sequel. This sees Nicolas Cage as archaeologist Ben Gates, tearing between Washington D.C., Mount Rushmore, Paris and London on a quest for a long-lost treasure.

The German-born Diane Kruger, whose big break in Hollywood came when she was cast as Helen in Wolfgang Petersen's Troy, once more plays Dr Abigail Chase.

During a lunch break on the Hollywood set of the sequel National Treasure: Book of Secrets, Kruger explains how the first film picks up where the last one left off.

* When you were making the first film, did you think it would be such a success?

I thought it would be a cool film. It was a surprise how well it played in the rest of the world outside the US. It had such an American theme but I live in France and I'm from Germany, and everywhere I went people kept telling me National Treasure was their favourite film.

* So it was an easy decision to sign on for a sequel?

I'm really impressed by the script for this second film. This isn't your classic shoot `em up action film. It's based on historical facts and it needed to be as witty as the first film. That sort of script must be difficult to pull together. But Jerry Bruckheimer pulled it off.

* He is almost certainly the most successful producer in the world right now. Why do you think that is?

He is also truly connected to his audience and has no pretension with a film such as this one of making anything other than great entertainment, though with a great twist.

* At the end of the last film, your character and Nic Cage's had fallen in love and gone off into the sunset. What's going on with them at the start of Book of Secrets?

At the start of this one, they are in the process of breaking up. They both seem to have become a little bit bored with their lives. They had found this great treasure and Abby had gone back to her work as a curator but where do you go from that? So this film begins with me kicking Nic out of the house.

* Is there a scene that really impressed you?

There is this one part of the film where we end up in these vast caverns. There were huge waterfalls all around us and we shot it at night, which added to the atmosphere. The noise was so loud from the waterfalls. There was spray everywhere. Of course, you also spend all night soaked to the skin. I was just glad they heated the water.

* What's working with Nic Cage like?

Nic must be doing three or four films a year and they are always this big, but he's so eager about what he's doing. He's always on time. There is a lot of waiting on a film like this, but Nic always uses that time to think about what he is going to do once the cameras do roll.

* What was your reaction when you heard that Helen Mirren was joining the cast?

She just won an Oscar, so you wonder if she is going to be a bit snooty or very serious about everything. But then she started writing down all her lines on little bits of paper and putting them all around the set, so we knew she's obviously going to be fun to work with. She never remembers her lines! I think she's a bit of a hippie.

* Do you look at someone like Helen Mirren and think, Here's how I should plan my career?

It's only been five years and I didn't know what I was getting myself into when I started acting. I was at drama school and then I got a French film and then Troy came along... but I felt like I had to do some backtracking because I see myself more as a character actress. Right now, I am consciously choosing smaller projects that allow more character work. Apart from National Treasure of course! Films don't get much bigger than this. - Courtesy of Disney

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