Diane Kruger Talks The Bridge & Strong Female Roles On Television

“The Bridge,” FX’s dark new drama about two detectives investigating a series of murders on the Texas-Mexico border, premieres tonight, and Diane Kruger, who stars as Sonya Cross, from the El Paso Police Department, said the show has a unique hook.

“The setting between Mexico and America is unique and I don’t think [it] has been done on television before,” Diane told reporters on a recent conference call to promote “The Bridge.” “And I think the backdrop of the unsolved crimes as the missing girls from Juarez, the relationship between America and Mexico, is very interesting to see and shine a light on.”

A twist in the very first case and mounting murders of young women, leads Sonya to team up with Marco Ruiz (Oscar nominee Demian Bichir), a detective from the other side of the border, and Diane said she thinks the characters make a unique on-screen pair.

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“I think that the two characters, Demian — Marco Ruiz and Sonya Cross, are an unusual combination of detectives. The show’s not your usual cop show. It’s a very character driven show, and you think the show’s about one thing and then it goes in directions that will be quite unexpected,” she said.

Sonya, who wears headphones while she’s on a murder scene and has an awkward romantic-tinged encounter with a man at the bar in one episode, has Asperger’s, but her condition is not actually addressed on the show.

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“We decided early on that we were not going to label Sonya’s condition in the show, which I think is very important and very interesting, because we didn’t want her condition to be her defining character trait,” Diane said. “I thought that was really brave and it’s pretty ballsy in my eyes, because in the first episode… she’s so odd and you don’t really know what it is that’s off. And I think it will be great to get the opportunity for the next 13 episodes to see her [nuances] and her layers and to understand a lot of her back story that has made her the person that she is today.”

The actress, who is known for her roles in films including “Inglourious Basterds” and “National Treasure: Book of Secrets,” said she is enjoying the challenges that come with being involved in a cable drama.

“There will continue to be movies that have great female roles, but I definitely think that on cable television, from ‘Mad Men’ to ‘Homeland’ or Robin Wright in ‘House of Cards,’ those female parts are so well written and unafraid of characters, and that’s really what it comes down to, I think,” she said. “It seems to me that they thrive and the audience is looking for characters like that, and it’s very exciting for women… I’ve never been offered an in-depth character like this in a movie.”

“The Bridge” premieres tonight at 10 PM ET/PT on FX.

Jolie Lash

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