Q1 PLAYBOY: Your face launched a thousand ships in the Brad Pitt epic Troy, Josh Hartnett is obsessed with you in Wicker Park, you and Nicolas Cage have twice hunted for National Treasure, and we’re about to see you in Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds, playing a World War II German film star and Nazi hunter. You’ve played so many different sorts of roles with so many different accents that few people seem to know you’re actually German.

KRUGER: I’m from a small village right next to a forest close to Hildesheim, Germany, and my childhood was spent building tree houses and, for class assignments, doing things like observing how baby geese swim. My dad left when I was 13, so it was just me, my younger brother and my mom. We didn’t have much money. My brother and I weren’t allowed to watch TV other than a few programs my mom chose. It was a very protected childhood, and it was definitely German.

Q2 PLAYBOY: You must have been a knockout. Who protected you from the local guys?

KRUGER: I had a childhood boyfriend, but I certainly wasn’t the hot chick. I stood out only for being the thinnest, most awkward one, with long blonde hair. Guys mostly ignored me. I was dedicated to becoming a ballerina. I went to dance class while other girls played soccer with the boys, so they were the popular ones.Then I began modeling pretty early.

Q3 PLAYBOY: Did modeling make you more or less popular?

KRUGER: The other kids resented that I was getting okay grades while being excused for being away a lot. The principal finally forced me to make a choice: “Either you’re a model or a student.” My mom said I could go to Paris for a year, but if modeling didn’t work out, I had to come back and finish school. Because she trusted me, I tried to be responsible and not fuck it up.

Q4 PLAYBOY: Was Mom wise to trust you?

KRUGER: In Paris I did all those stupid things you’re supposed to do, but I was a pretty good kid who didn’t want to go out and get crazy. I didn’t even drink until I was 21. I definitely succeeded as a model against the odds—like looking 13 when I was actually 16 and standing only five-seven, which at the time was very short for a model.

Q5 PLAYBOY: Considering your success, even you must have realized that you had in fact become “the hot chick.”

KRUGER: Paris was the first time I felt men were really looking at me. I enjoyed that Frenchmen were gallant and tried to woo girls a bit more ardently than the men where I come from did. I was faithful to my childhood boyfriend from Germany for, like, six months, and then we broke up. I fell in love with a French student, and we ended up dating for three years. We broke up too, but he’s still my best friend.

Q6 PLAYBOY: What sort of men, French or not, would never get to first base with you?

KRUGER: I’ve never liked arrogant men, the ones with the smooth line all ready to go, like, “Oh, you have the most beautiful eyes” or whatever. I hate over-the-top guys, the ones who drive yellow Porsches. I like tall guys who carry themselves with a confident stride and have good skin and an air of taking care of themselves. I generally don’t go for traditionally handsome guys, either. I prefer a kind of broken-in, goofy look.

Q7 PLAYBOY: Have you been more likely to have your heart broken or to be the heartbreaker?

KRUGER: I think I broke a lot of guys’ hearts when I was younger, not because I intended to but because I was selfish. I ended things with guys I was never really in love with and probably left a little harshly and abruptly. But when I was 21, modeling and living in New York, I had my heart broken for the first time. I was madly in love with this guy who was horrible to me. That was the worst year of my life. Ever since, I’ve been a lot more cautious about treating other people’s hearts carefully.