Diane Kruger sits amid the dilapidated splendour of a 19th-century Berlin ballroom smoking a cigarette, between set-ups on the Marie Claire cover shoot.

Her eyes are painted panda black, and she looks every inch the movie star. The past 12 months have seen her move closer to finally being recognised for an acting talent that, for the most part, has been confined to French cinema. There have been blockbusters before, including Troy, but then along came the Oscar-nominated Inglourious Basterds. The Quentin Tarantino movie has won numerous accolades, including Kruger’s Best Supporting Actress Screen Actors Guild nomination.

How has Inglourious Basterds changed people’s perceptions of you?
I’m European, small, dainty – but I actually consider myself more of a tomboy. But I’ve not been allowed to play those parts in America and I think it just changed the way people think of me.
How do you feel now about Germany? It’s home, but I’ve been away for half of my life so it’s a little foreign.

You describe your two years at drama school as your happiest. It’s where you met Guillaume Canet. How old were you when you married?
Twenty-three or 24. Very young. That lasted five years. Oh, yeah, it was a big love.

You’ve said since that you will never get married again…
No, I don’t think so. Because I’ve realised commitment is important and no matter what paper you’re going to sign, if that commitment ceases to be there you’ll get out of the marriage anyway. You know, I might get married at 50 or 60, when it actually means something to say ‘for the rest of my life’.

How does Joshua Jackson feel about that?
Josh is very cool either way. Well… no, it’s never come up… I’ve never considered marriage after Guillaume.

OK, let me ask you about another heart-throb, who starred alongside you in Inglourious Basterds. What was Brad Pitt like to work with?
On set he’s just like everybody else. He’s super-nice. Professional and committed. He attended every read-through, every rehearsal. It wasn’t like, ‘Brad Pitt’s going to show up.’ Quentin doesn’t care who you are or what you’ve done before. He’s about the work.

You’ve got to tell me about Quentin Tarantino’s foot fetish.
When I first got the job, some German guy interviewed me and said, ‘So do you have a foot scene?’ I was like, ‘Actually, I do. Why?’ Tarantino. Foot fetish. Blah, blah. So the day comes and I walk on set and I’m like [to Tarantino], ‘Hey! [Winks.] Today’s the foot scene. Are you excited?’ And he was like, ‘It’s not true!’ But then he certainly spent more time filming my foot than my face, so I don’t know. But I definitely think I have cuter feet than Uma Thurman!

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