Talk about a fun gig: You're in your second "National Treasure" movie, where you're not only having the time of your life filming a fascinating story, but one that takes you all over the world, it almost seems impossible that you could have a bad day.
Diane Kruger, who returns to star in "National Treasure: Book of Secrets" didn't, thankfully, but she admits,
there were times she was drenched with disdain given the workflow.
"I didn't have any 'I hate my job days,' but when you're filming in the water for three weeks, there are days when you just can't take it anymore and you say, 'Oh my God, I
cannot be an action star,'" said Kruger, laughing, in a recent @ The Movies interview.
Kruger, who played the pivotal role of Abigail Chase, the National Archives curator who gets caught up in Benjamin Franklin Gates' (Nicolas Cage) heist of the Declaration of Independence in the first "National Treasure," said coming back for another adventure wasn't exactly a sure thing. Along with Cage, Turteltaub, and their fellow cast and crewmembers, Kruger wanted to make sure first that the story for the sequel was up to snuff before proceeding with the project.
"We talked about a sequel about a year after the first film came out -- we were very cautious about it," Kruger said. "It was never anticipated (that we would do another) after we did the first one. We thought, 'What other kind of treasure could we possibly find and what other story could they come up with that would be as intriguing?' I think if anything, that challenge helped because they had another two years to come up with the new film. Then Helen Mirren and Ed Harris came on board, and Nic was going to come back -- it only felt like, 'This is going to be good.'"
In the film, which opens in theaters Friday, Chase joins Benjamin and his crew as they embark on a worldwide adventure in order to clear the Gates' family name after a missing page in John Wilkes Booth's diary surfaces: a page that Benjamin's great-great grandfather is implicated in the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln.
The German-born Kruger, who mostly makes her home now in France, said having the sort of pedigree of actors that "Book of Secrets" has, including Mirren, Harris, Cage and Jon Voight, truly makes for one of those "pinch yourself to feel it's real situations."
"They elevate the movie and bring something to the table that's not common in the action movie genre," Kruger said. "It's not your typical action-packed, silly Sunday night movie. It's light and it's fun, but there are also great actors in it. And, it actually has a plot."
Plus, Kruger, added, she appreciates the fact that screenwriters Cormac and Marianne Wibberley, along with original "National Treasure" screenwriters Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio -- penned strong women roles in the film.
"I really like the way they portray women in the 'National Treasure' movies. Abigail is not in a tight white T-shirt in waterfalls," Kruger said. "She's actually a strong role model for women. She's feisty, super-smart, educated and witty, yet feminine and charming. What a pleasure."
The bonus for Kruger on "Book of Secrets" is that she got to work with a European "Treasure" in "The Queen" Oscar-winner
Mirren. The great thing is, Kruger said, is that the British actress -- who plays Benjamin's mother in the film -- hardly acted like royalty on the set.
"She would say of herself, 'I'm a working actress,'" Kruger said. "She has no pretense and she doesn't think she's God's gift to Europe. She doesn't go, 'With this part, I'm going to win the Oscar. It's all about finding that part that interests her at that time."
Kruger said it's a great feeling to be working with somebody who takes the work because it interests them, and doesn't think any genre of film is beneath them.
"She takes 'National Treasure' after she wins an Oscar for 'The Queen' -- that's a perfect example of what kind of a person she is," Kruger said.
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