Diane Kruger says Tarantino didn’t even want to audition her for Inglourious Basterds

Actor says the only reason Tarantino considered her was because ‘there was no one left to audition’

Diane Kruger has revealed Quentin Tarantino was initially opposed to auditioning her for Inglourious Basterds.

Kruger opened up about the casting process for Tarantino’s 2009 war film during Tuesday’s (11 January) episode of the Reign with Josh Smith podcast.

The 45-year-old actor said: “[Tarantino] didn’t want to audition me because he saw a movie that I was in that he didn’t like. So he didn’t believe in me from the get-go.”

She added that the only reason Tarantino considered her for the part was because “there was no one left to audition.”

However, she told Smith, she had to fly to Germany on her own expense to audition for the film because the Academy Award-winning director “wouldn’t see me in the US”.

“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** him,’” Kruger continued, explaining she was determined to prove Tarantino wrong and “change the narrative”.

Kruger’s performance as Bridget von Hammersmark in the film eventually won her the Screen Actor’s Guild award.

Kruger has previously said working with Tarantino was “pure joy” after reports surfaced that she was allegedly unhappy about some scenes in Inglourious Basterds in which she was strangled by the filmmaker.

Offering her comment on social media, Kruger wrote: “[Tarantino] treated me with utter respect and never abused his power or forced me to do anything I wasn’t comfortable with.”

Clarifying his own position at the time, Tarantino said he had taken explicit permission from Kruger before choking her.

Kruger’s Inglourious Basterds scene was referenced following Uma Thurman’s bombshell 2018 interview in The New York Times during which she revealed the 58-year-old director had choked and spit on her during the filming of Kill Bill.