Diane Kruger Talks The Bridge and Her Transition to TV

Prior to the premiere of The Bridge, the only time American audiences had seen film star Diane Kruger (Inglourious Basterds) on a TV show was as a guest on an episode of Fringe. (Her character's corpse shared the screen with Kruger's real-life boyfriend, Joshua Jackson.) But the complicated role of Sonya Cross — an American detective with Asperger's syndrome who's trying to solve a series of murders along the U.S.-Mexico border — proved too ­alluring to turn down.
TV Guide Magazine: Why did The Bridge make you want to do TV?
Kruger: I was offered two pilots for ­cable shows, and they were truly better than most scripts I had read in my entire career. Sonya was certainly a character I'd never been offered in movies. Autistic characters are typically used for comic relief, or they're just awkward. This show is so not that. It shines a light on someone who functions.
TV Guide Magazine: And you finally get to costar with Demian ­Bichir — who plays Sonya's partner in the investigation, Chihuahua State Det. Marco Ruiz — after a couple of movie projects you were supposed to do together fell through.
Kruger: Getting to work with him was one of the reasons I took this part! He brings a real ­authenticity to the show. He grew up in Mexico, so he knows very well about the border issues there.
TV Guide Magazine: Will we find out more of Sonya's backstory in tonight's episode?
Kruger: We'll see glimpses of her past. Her sister was murdered when they were teenagers, and before that they sort of grew up nowhere, mostly in cars. Hank [Ted Levine] is a father figure in her life who investigated her sister's death and took her in. He's the only person in her life that has access to her emotions and the only person she ­really trusts.
TV Guide Magazine: You went on a research trip to Juárez with executive producer Elwood Reid. How did that go?
Kruger: Elwood was a little nervous, because he thought he was going to get fired for losing his leading lady in Juárez. We walked the bridge and spent the day there. It was actually a really nice place, considering it was daylight and we didn't go looking for trouble. What was shocking was this person took us around, and we would drive through very upscale neighborhoods, and he would say, "Oh, this is where XYZ drug dealer lives." I thought it was so weird that everybody knows where they live and ­nobody does anything about it.
The Bridge airs Wednesdays at 10/9c on FX.
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