Diane Kruger Delighted to Portray Germans in Positive Light  12/22/05

German actress Diane Kruger jumped at the chance to star in Merry Christmas because it gave her a rare opportunity to portray her country in a positive light.

The Troy beauty has turned down numerous war movie roles because she didn't want to be cast as a negative stereotype, but the new World War I film focuses on the famous Christmas of 1914 when opposing forces celebrated together in no man's land.

She says, "I really wanted to make Merry Christmas because, as a young German, I get offered I don't know how many scripts about the war, in which we're not portrayed as nice people.

"I thought, 'For once, here's a film that doesn't point fingers.' It's a historical fact that a German tenor was the first one to step into no man's land.

"So it was showing my country in a different light - it was not so black and white."