Diane Kruger took a brief break from a busy day on the set of season two of The Bridge to take part in a conference call and provide the scoop (minus any spoilers) on what fans of the critically acclaimed FX series can expect from this upcoming season. The Bridge season two will premiere on Wednesday, July 9, 2014 at 10pm ET/PT, kicking off 13 brand new episodes starring Kruger, Demian Bichir, Ted Levine, and Matthew Lillard.
The Season 2 Plot:
In Season 2, Marco (Bichir), reeling from the death of his son, is still dealing with corrupt cops and the demands of the cartel. Sonya (Kruger) meets an unexpected man with connections to her past who threatens to come between her and her boss, Lieutenant Hank Wade (Levine). The case quickly pulls them all into a complex web of money laundering, police corruption, and the Juarez Drug War which infiltrates the suburban streets of El Paso.
El Paso Times reporters Daniel Frye (Lillard) and Adriana Mendez (Emily Rios) continue to follow the Millie Quintana Money House, a path that will eventually cross that of Marco and Sonya. Charlotte Millwright (Annabeth Gish) will have to make the impossible choice between the two worlds that have a grasp on her: the US government and the Mexican cartel. Meanwhile, Steven Linder (Thomas M. Wright) tries to do right by his Mexican Immigrant love and ends up seeking justice the only way he knows how.
Diane Kruger The Bridge Interview
How do you take such an emotionally-stoic role and make it personally satisfying as an actor?
Diane Kruger: “It’s been a real challenge, not just for me but I think also for the writers, for Elwood [Reid] and the writing team to continue to evolve her character and to give her storylines where she can show emotion and nuance. Obviously, people who have Asperger’s have emotions; it is just that they are delayed and come out in the most unexpected moments. Season 2, we will get to see a lot of Sonya’s personal life and her relationship with Ted Levine’s character and Demian’s character, obviously, tested. It’s a very dark and quite emotional season for her, so it’s been very satisfying.”
Do you know why they didn’t mention her condition specifically in Season 1?
Diane Kruger: “That was part of, I think, what they learned from the Scandinavian original show. They never mentioned it either, and I think it was a great decision because I think just because she has Asperger’s, people don’t go around telling people, you know, ‘I’m Sonya Cross. I have Asperger’s.’ It was just a way of peaking, hopefully, everyone’s interest and sort of making that assumption and diagnosis for themselves.”
What personal relationships or cultural dynamics are you most interested in exploring in the show?
Diane Kruger: “Well, you know, Sonya herself is a very complex character to play and the real challenge is to give a really nuanced performance and really pushing, not just the radars, but also pushing myself to make sure that we see a very complete picture of a woman living with Asperger’s. And yet I’m, of course, always intrigued; I learn so much from the show about storylines that actually happen on the border. A lot of our stories are inspired by real-life events, and it’s a very volatile area, as you know. The stories that I read about and learn about are often discussed, not just on set, but when we get sort of the pitches for the next upcoming episodes. So, I’m always intrigued by that. It’s been a very satisfying experience working on a show that is politically relevant and quite timey.”
What do you think sets your character apart from some of the other roles that you’ve played in the past?
Diane Kruger: “Hopefully, every character that I take on as I grow older becomes more interesting, and, obviously, as I grow older, I have more to bring to the table and more experiences that I’ve lived myself so I’m hoping that I can color my characters more and more. Sonya’s certainly been very challenging and continues to be so, and it’s been a very satisfying season so far. I feel like we really get to learn a lot about her.”
How did you go about getting the nuances of someone with Asperger’s? It seems it would be a real challenge to not go over the top with the portrayal.
Diane Kruger: “Yes, that continues to be really daunting for me, you know? The research on it was really intense before we started Season 1, and then being able to be around someone who has Asperger’s for a long time, very high functioning, but it was very interesting to be able to just observe his limitations sometimes. He has evolved enough that I could ask him when he comes to certain limits what is going through his mind, why he’s behaving certain ways, and what is it that makes him uncomfortable right now. So I felt like whenever I’m do stemming or certain takes or I have to say lines that are kind of awkward, that they are informed.
Then, now I feel like in Season 2 because I know the character better and I just know so much more and have met so many more people who have Asperger’s, I feel like I can make it my own a little bit because, as I’m sure you know, not everybody is the same who has Asperger’s and [it manifests] very differently in different people. I’m really comfortable now also to push Sonya because I think she wants to learn and be better socially. She’s not a child anymore. I think the writers have been really, really good this season about giving me the opportunity to branch out and to show how she evolves, yet still obviously having Asperger’s, but like where she’s trying to be different.”
Do you ever come across any moments that make you uncomfortable but you know that’s what a person with Asperger’s would do?
Diane Kruger: “Yes. Here’s the thing: sometimes I have to fight or I find myself being very protective of her because I think it’s natural for the directors or even for people who observe a scene while it’s being filmed to want something that is a little safer, let’s say. For example, we did a scene where somebody dies. You know, it’s a very beautiful sort of teary-eyed scene. Then, somebody touches my character, like it’s on the shoulder, and in that moment, as you know they feel out of control or helpless, they can be really overreacting. One of the notes that I got from my Asperger’s advisor was like she would completely overreact in this situation and probably scream at this person, so I did the scene and it was quite extreme. My writer, who was on set the day, was like, ‘Well, maybe we should do one where she’s not so angry,’ and I kept saying, ‘No, no. We have to have it this way.’ So I find myself really trying to protect the integrity that we have, even though I know it’s going to make people uncomfortable. We’re just going to have to be okay with that.”
How do you think this season will differ in tone from the first?
Diane Kruger: “I think it’s a very different show in many ways. We don’t really have a classic serial killer storyline. You know, we were following the original Scandinavian show in Season 1 and now we’re completely on our own and have our own stories. As you know, Meredith Stiehm went back to Homeland and it’s just Elwood Reid the show runner on the main voice of the show. His vision for the show is darker for sure, but also more complex. There’s not just one storyline per se, so our personal lives get involved in what is happening on the border. There are many different storylines that sort of happen at the same time and, seemingly, are not connected, and the American involvement in the cartels plays a big part. You know, it’s a very grey show.”
Will Sonya have a different dynamic with one of the villains this year given that it’s a female?
Diane Kruger: “Yes. She’s not the only villain, even though she clearly is one villain of the show. There are other characters that play big roles that are being introduced. It’s a very cool character. Elwood’s dark little heart. Yes, I think so. When our characters finally meet, I think Eleanor is so odd and so different that on some level Sonya is fascinated by that, but also feels like she is moving in to her, not just by following leads, but she’s trying to get into her psyche. I think that will really happen is those two women [will] do this little dance around each other.”
What will Sonya’s greatest personal struggles be this season? How her character will develop?
Diane Kruger: “There’s a lot of personal hardship for her. Some great joys in the beginning of the season and then it’s pretty dark for Sonya. Yet, at the same time, it’s a great year, a season of personal maturity. You know, she had this sort of daughter father-figure relationship with Ted’s character and as that relationship gets tested and tried, I think she comes out of it as a much stronger independent woman. She’s also starting to realize that things are not quite as black and white and sometimes you have to sort of make a concession which has been, for Sonya, completely unimaginable.”
Can you talk a little bit about what you know about this type of TV series that maybe you didn’t know before? Why does skill set work so well in it and has it improved your acting?
Diane Kruger: “Well, I don’t know anything about television. I’d never done it before. Initially, it was quite daunting to take on so much challenge and so much time with it. I think it is a great outlet for an actress because you really have 13 hours to bring a character to life, so much more than in the film, and you have the luxury of time to tell a story and to really color a character. I’m not sure that this kind of character would’ve been offered to me in a movie because people with Asperger’s are not necessarily the lead in a film. They’re often sort of used as comic relief or they’d be the odd guy that shows up every once in a while.
That’s the other thing; television is a great tool for women. As you know the best female roles, I think, are often on television, so it’s a very exciting time. I’ve really embraced it. I think I said it last year, the pace is great and then also not so great sometimes because you feel like I have to make sure I have to pay attention at all times to not let anything slip through. The change of directors, for me, was very difficult to grasp in Season 1. I’m getting better this season because we have a lot of directors returning from last year, so there’s not this getting to know period as much and I enjoy it. I have a great time. I love my costars. I feel like you lean on them heavily. You lean heavily on crew much more than you would do in a film. It really does feel like you’re in this like boat together and you all have to keep the ship running.”
What are some of the darkest places you’ve allowed yourself to go to do a scene and dive into your character’s psyche?
Diane Kruger: “Well, for me, my character is so obsessed with dead people. I think she gets along better with dead people than she does living creatures. That part hasn’t been so difficult for me to shoot up. I think because she is such an emotionally-restrained character, whenever there is a scene where I show emotion, it is truly heartbreaking to see someone who is seemingly a bit aloof or nothing really shocks her or touches her and then having some scene where you just see the loneliness of this person. Those are sometimes really hard scenes. It’s weird even for the crew sometimes when I have to do a scene—it catches them off guard because often they are in moments that are not what a person without Asperger’s would be emotional at.”
What’s ahead for Sonya and Marco’s relationship this season?
Diane Kruger: “Without giving too much away, but it is getting tested a bit. Sonya has reason to believe that Marco is compromised and she distrusts him quite a bit, and there’s a big fallout over whether or not she believes that he’s taken too many steps into that darkness, you know, into that grey zone where she learns about his dealings with the bad guys basically.”
