Diane Kruger Explained Why Quentin Tarantino Didn't Want Her To Audition For "Inglorious Basterds"

"He didn't believe in me from the get-go."

Diane Kruger is a great actor, and she crushed it in Quentin Tarantino's bloody epic Inglorious Basterds.

Francois Duhamel / Weinstein Company / courtesy Everett Collection

But as she revealed on a recent episode of the Reign With Josh Smith podcast, Kruger almost wasn't in the film at all.

Francois Duhamel / Weinstein Company / courtesy Everett Collection

"He didn't want to audition me because he saw a movie that I was in he didn't like," Kruger stated after noting that Tarantino auditioned "everyone" for the role. "So he didn't believe in me from the get-go. Literally, the only reason he auditioned me is because there was no one left to audition."

Weinstein Company / courtesy Everett Collection

"I had to pay for my own flight from New York to go to Germany because he wouldn't, even though, obviously, he's American, but he 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! I'm just gonna do that and prove to him that I can do it.'"

Weinstein Company / courtesy Everett Collection

"And thankfully it all worked out."

Dee Cercone / courtesy Everett Collection

Kruger also says that, ultimately, she thinks Tarantino learned a "lesson" from the experience. "Sometimes you are the one that puts — and I'm sure I'm guilty of that too — you put people in boxes. You think they're gonna be one way, and then they're not at all."

Francois Duhamel / Weinstein Company / courtesy Everett Collection

Listen to the entire interview here.