Name: Diane Kruger
SXSW projects: “Swimming With Sharks”
Notable past credits: “Inglorious Bastards,” and the German-language film “In the Fade,” for which she won best actress at the Cannes Film Festival.
First impressions of Austin: “That it’s way colder than it was supposed to be! I didn’t pack a jacket.”
On her first time at SXSW: “It’s pretty relaxed, it’s a little less intense than Cannes, let’s say. But I’m excited to see the show in person.”
Kruger hopped over from Atlanta for one day at SXSW to premiere her new show “Swimming With Sharks,” which premieres on Roku April 15 and is a remake of the 1994 film classic. Originally a Quibi show (RIP), the remake has been in the works since early 2020.
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“We got shut down by COVID[-19], then we got shut down when Quibi folded,” she says laughing. “And now here we are, which is kind of amazing — I did not think it was ever going to see the light of day.”
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The series stars Kiernan Shipka as a young assistant who becomes obsessed with her boss, played by Kruger.
“I recognized a lot of personalities that my character is based on. I was really drawn to the fact that, yes, she’s a harsh person, a very demanding boss, and yet there is a vulnerability of not being able to conceive and having a cheating husband and I think that’s something that women in all areas can relate to,” says Kruger, who became a mom in 2018. “We’ve worked so hard to get into the power positions and executive levels, and we’re there and we have to come face to face with what that actually means [with fertility]. We’re pushing everything back — I certainly did — until it’s almost too late, and if you do want to have children and a family life, too, that can be a real struggle. So I found a lot of tenderness for her as well.”
As for the chemistry with her onscreen partner Shipka?
“I was excited to work with Kiernan — I was a big ‘Mad Men’ fan. It was a little odd to me that I was going to be making out with the kid from ‘Mad Men,’’ she says. “It was cool to see her step out into a more mature role and owning it, and also with the sexual part that came with the show.”
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