Diane Kruger has dozens of film and television credits to her name, from National Treasure to Inglourious Basterds. However, after welcoming her nearly 7-year-old daughter Nova in November 2018, Kruger is now more cognizant of the roles she pursues.
The 49-year-old opened up about how motherhood has affected her career while speaking with E! News this week. She shares Nova with her longtime partner actor Norman Reedus. Nova is Kruger’s first child and Reedus’s second. He also has an adult son with his ex, model Helena Christensen.
“I am much more conscious today with the choice of roles I take on and how I live my life. You know, I can’t teach her, I can only live by example,” Kruger shared. “And obviously, I grew up in a very different world than she ever will, so there’s a lot of stuff that will just be a given for her that I went through and I wouldn’t never tolerate that for my daughter.”
Kruger will appear next in the HBO Max drama series The Seduction, a French-language reimagined prequel to the 18th century novel Les Liaisons Dangereuses by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos, which was the inspiration for the 1988 period drama Dangerous Liaisons. Kruger stars as Madame de Rosemonde, whom she describes as “one of the first pioneers of women that decided to live their life like a man.”
“She was able to navigate the golden cage that was traditionally built by men for men, and it worked really well for men and made work for her,” she explained. “But I loved portraying that rage inside of her, of trying to push those walls, and handing the baton to the next generation who will push further, and the next. So that was for me the fun. And the reason why I wanted to be part of it.”
“Hopefully, she’ll watch this one day and be like, ‘You kicked ass, Mom,’” Kruger quipped. However, she also revealed that her daughter has a sassy side to her.
“She saw me in costume, and she was like, ‘You look like from the olden days, Mom. It’s making you look old,’” she laughed. “So, it’s definitely a reality check there.”
According to Deadline, the series is described as “a free adaptation” of Laclos’s steamy novel and “an exploration of the price of emotional and sexual freedom—in a world where women had little.”
The six-part series premieres on HBO Max on Friday, Nov. 14, with episodes rolling out on a weekly basis. You can watch the trailer here.
