Diane Kruger Talks About The "Horrible People In My Industry" As She Recalls Starring In A Movie Produced By Harvey Weinstein
Diane Kruger is no stranger to playing the leading lady in blockbuster films. For her new series "Swimming With Sharks," she plays a studio executive who wields power over a young assistant.
Swimming With Sharks is a remake of the 1994 film of the same name that starred Kevin Spacey. In this reboot, Kruger plays a woman named Joyce Holt who has experienced sexual assault and harassment in her career. Holt is even coerced by her boss (a film studio head played by Donald Sutherland) to have sex with his young girlfriend. In an interview with The Times, Kruger opens up about how these creepy experiences aren't foreign to witness in Hollywood.
Diane Kruger Says There Are "Horrible People in My Industry"
Everyone watched in horror as more and more stories of Harvey Weinstein's alleged abuse came out from women in Hollywood. Kruger makes it clear that she was never raped, but she has witnessed some pretty creepy moments and she herself has felt uncomfortable more than once as an actress trying to land roles.
"This is not me working out old demons or trying to create clickbait for calling people out,” she said. “I’ve certainly come across the Weinsteins of this world. I’ve never been raped. I’m not a victim. I’m here and thriving, but there have been horrible stories exposed.”
When Kruger auditioned for her breakout role in Troy, she recalled having to wear the full costume. "I felt like meat," she said. And when she was working with Quentin Tarantino in Inglorious Basterds, which was produced by Weinstein, she said he strangled Kruger himself in order to simulate the scene in which she was choked to death: “If it’s just a guy with his hands on your neck, not putting any kind of pressure and you’re just doing this wiggling death rattle, it looks like a normal movie strangulation." Although the situation was uncomfortable and borderline unsafe, Kruger ultimately described working with Tarantino as "pure joy."
Kruger points out that when she first started in the industry there weren't that many women in powerful positions. "And oftentimes they were incredibly harsh, also towards other women, because they felt like they had the sense of, ‘Oh my God, I have to be double as tough to justify where I’m at.’ I think that’s changed over the years," she shared.