'The Bridge': Diane Kruger on Asperger's and Female TV Roles

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Playing a cop is not uncommon for an actor or actress.
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Diane Kruger (Inglourious Basterds, National Treasure) plays Detective Sonya Cross on FX's new serial-killer drama The Bridge, which premieres Wednesday. Cross joins Mexican detective Marco Ruiz (Demian Bichir) to hunt a killer who works on both sides of the El Paso-Juarez border, and her Asperger’s both helps and hinders.

“Yes, she has a condition [with] so many shortcomings in her personal life that appear because of that condition,” Kruger told THR in an interview with reporters. “Yet, she is so different in her job because she has this ability to focus and really look at things from a different point of view.”

The challenge of playing a character with the syndrome led Kruger to take the role of Det. Cross, which is also her first TV starring turn. “I never really had the desire to play a cop. I’m not really the gun-toting kind of person,” she said. But watching Bron, the Scandinavian series adapted into The Bridge by showrunners Meredith Stiehm and Elwood Reid, and its detective with Asperger’s, Kruger was intrigued by the subtle manifestations of the condition.

“As soon as I started reading up on it, I realized that this was a really daunting undertaking because it’s not something you can just put on. It’s a mind frame that I have to put myself into every day,” she said. “There’s not one single line in the dialogue that’s just a straight-up line.”

She had on-set guidance: FX connected with Autism Speaks, a U.S. autism awareness and research organization, and arranged for a young man with Asperger’s to advise Kruger during shooting. In addition to her own extensive research, Kruger says, she watched Alex Plank’s behavior on set and asked him “some pretty uncomfortable questions” about his condition.

“I’ve spent -- I’m not kidding -- more time with him in the past four months than I have with my partner and friends,” Kruger said. “I sleep easier at night knowing that he watches over everything I do.”