With Christopher Nolan’s much-anticipated Odyssey now playing in theaters, viewers have been rediscovering earlier versions of the Greek poet Homer’s epics, The Iliad and The Odyssey.
German actress Diane Kruger, who played Helen in Wolfgang Petersen’s 2004 Brad Pitt-starrer mythological saga Troy, recently caught netizens' attention as she turned 50.
Highlights
- Former Helen of Troy Diane Kruger recently turned 50 and impressed netizens with her youthful appearance.
- Some compared her looks with Lupita Nyong'o, the actress playing Helen in Christopher Nolan’s new film ‘Odyssey’.
- The conversation prompted Kruger’s past comments on her workout routine, healthy diet, mental health maintenance, and post-childbirth fitness regimen to resurface.
Many were surprised by her youthful appearance after she shared photos of herself celebrating the milestone in Venice, Italy.
“She can still play Helen of Troy, and people would love her,” one person wrote.
Diane Kruger recently celebrated her 50th birthday in Venice, Italy
Image credits: Arnold Jerocki/Getty Images for Ami Paris
Transitioning from modeling to acting in the early 2000s, Diane Kruger earned international acclaim within a few years with roles in films such as Troy, National Treasure, and Wicker Park.
She made her German-language debut in Fatih Akin's In the Fade, which earned her the Best Actress Award at the Cannes Film Festival.
The role of Helen of Sparta — better known as Helen of Troy — is widely considered her breakout performance. She played the legendary mythological queen from The Iliad, whose elopement with Trojan prince Paris (Orlando Bloom) sparked the infamous Trojan War.
Image credits: Patricia J. Garcinuño/Getty Images
Despite several other depictions of the fictional character over the years, many still remember her as “Helen of Troy,” as evidenced by the comments on her latest Instagram post.
Kruger recently shared photos from her trip to Venice, where she attended the wedding ceremony of her stylist, Micah Schifman, with her fiancé, Walking Dead actor Norman Reedus.
The couple, who met on the set of the 205 film Sky and have been together since 2016, share a daughter named Nova Tennessee. They got engaged in 2021.
Netizens compared Diane Kruger’s Helen of Troy with Lupita Nyong'o’s
Image credits: dianekruger
Kruger, who turned 50 on July 15, shared a selfie to mark the occasion, wearing a halter-strap gingham dress, white sunglasses, and a black scarf.
The picture is taken against Venice’s iconic Basilica di Santa Maria della Salute, likely while riding a boat on the Grand Canal.
“The real Helen of Troy,” one user commented under the photo. Another said, “Always a 10/10 woman.”
Image credits: Warner Bros
Image credits: kuaroo_
“The most beautiful actress in Hollywood,” said a third.
Many more wished her a happy birthday on other social media platforms.
“Even at 50 years old, Diane Kruger can still fit the role of Helen of Troy better than Lupita Nyong'o,” one netizen commented, referring to Nolan’s choice of cast for Helen that has sparked a massive controversy.
Diane Kruger has been working out extensively since she was 32
Image credits: Warner Bros
Kruger is no stranger to hardships.
Her lifelong dream of becoming a ballerina was shattered due to a career-ending knee injury at 13, shortly after her parents divorced.
“I was really depressed for a good year, but now I’m older, and it was a really great life lesson: you don’t always get what you want,” Kruger told The Guardian in 2016.
Still, it is always difficult to bounce back to a Hollywood career after having a baby, especially at 42, and Kruger was no exception.
Preparing for Simon Kinberg’s action-thriller The 355, her first movie after giving birth, was “daunting,” Kruger admitted to Women’s Health magazine in 2021.
Throughout her pregnancy, she continued walking, using the elliptical, or doing squats with five-pound weights, but now she added boxing, running, grappling, and even military drills to her routine.
Even before she had her baby, she felt her body change drastically, which pushed her to take fitness more seriously.
Image credits: dianekruger
“I was naturally skinny when I was younger, and I did a lot of ballet and ballroom dancing, so I didn't work out traditionally. But by the time I hit about 32, I felt my metabolism change,” she said.
“That’s when I thought I needed to work out to be able to eat what I wanted—and I dreaded it.”
Kruger prefers to do the elliptical, burpees, box jumps, situps, planks, 20-pound squats, and lifts at the gym, she told the outlet.
In 2017, Kruger told Coveteur magazine that she also did Pilates and Xtend Barre and worked out 4-5 times a week.
Diane Kruger’s go-to diet includes salmon, avocado, and red wine
Image credits: dianekruger
Kruger has long been an advocate for healthy eating as well.
In the 2017 Coveteur interview, she revealed that she loves cooking from scratch and going to the market for fresh produce. She also enjoys preparing feasts for friends and family, and has a Christmas-special signature lobster bisque that “people seem to really love,” she said.
She admitted she is an avid coffee drinker, downs a glass of wine before red-carpet events, and that “greasy Chinese food” is her preferred cheat-day option.
In 2016, Kruger said on the New Potato blog that her fridge staples were water, butter, cheese, and a bottle of Rosé.
Image credits: dianekruger
She also detailed her everyday diet, which included “poached eggs with avocado on multigrain bread for breakfast, some sort of salmon dish for lunch, nuts as snacks during the day, and maybe chicken or veal for dinner with veggies and red wine.”
As for her mental health, Kruger revealed she became pickier with her jobs and occasionally got Thai massages, manicures, and pedicures to de-stress. She also prefers taking a few days for herself and going on solo movie dates, which help her decompress, she added.
Things naturally changed for her with motherhood, but for the better.
Despite exhaustion and forgetfulness, Diane Kruger was “glad” to become a mother at 42
Image credits: dianekruger
Giving birth to Nova in 2018 altered how Diane Kruger approached her career.
“Everything changed with motherhood — it’s such a cliché, but it’s true,” she told Women’s Health magazine in 2021.
“I always feel tense, like I’m forgetting 5,000 things a day. I often feel like I don’t take enough time to stop for a second and take care of myself, so I’m trying to get better about that.”
She confessed she also started feeling exhausted all the time and started taking vegan multivitamins to help her feel less drained.
Image credits: dianekruger
Regardless of the struggles, Kruger said she was “glad” to have become a mother in her 40s.
“I am so glad I did not have a kid at 30,” the Unknown actress told the Sunday Telegraph in 2022. “I think I would have absolutely resented it for all the things that you have to give up, because today I am happy to do so.”
“I have been to every party. I have been to every country that I wanted to visit. So I'm 100 percent ready and willing to give my kid that attention. But at 30, I know I would not have been ready to do this properly.”
"Could still play the part." The internet reacted to former "Helen of Troy" Diane Kruger turning 50
