- - Diane Kruger Finally Got to Fulfill This Career ‘Bucket List’ Item with “The Seduction” (Exclusive)

Julia MooreNovember 14, 2025 at 9:00 PM

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Caroline Dubois/HBO

Diane Kruger in 'The Seduction' -

A new French HBO series, The Seduction, revisits the salacious world created in Pierre Choderlos de Laclos' iconic novel from 1782, Les Liaisons Dangereuses

Diane Kruger stars in the new series alongside Lucas Bravo and tells PEOPLE why the role as Madame de Rosemonde helped her cross off a major career bucket list item

The German actress also admits why she was initially hesitant to star in the series and what changed her mind

Diane Kruger is still crossing new things off her bucket list after more than two decades in Hollywood.

The German actress, 49, will next be seen in the HBO series The Seduction, a new take on Pierre Choderlos de Laclos' iconic novel from 1782, Les Liaisons Dangereuses, that premieres Friday, Nov. 14.

Kruger plays seductress Madame de Rosemonde in the French series. In the role, she takes Marquise de Merteuil (Anamaria Vartolomei) under her wing and opens her eyes to the dangerous libertine world of aristocrats in 18th-century France. Alongside her nephew, Sebastian Valmont (Vincent Lacoste), Rosemonde and the Marquise will stop at nothing to take down Comte de Gercourt (Lucas Bravo).

The Inglorious Basterds star admits that she was "a little apprehensive" to join the show, given the French novel was adapted into the hit 1988 film Dangerous Liaisons starring John Malkovich, Glenn Close and Michelle Pfeiffer, which Kruger says is "pretty perfect." The book was also adapted into the 1999 teen drama Cruel Intentions and more recently, the Starz limited series led by Alice Englert and Nicholas Denton in 2022.

Caroline Dubois/HBO

Anamaria Vartolomei and Diane Kruger in 'The Seduction'

"I wasn't sure it needed another remake or adaptation," Kruger admits to PEOPLE, before explaining, "What drew me to this, when I initially read the script, was that, as I grow older — and we know the story so well and we've seen movies and we've read the books — it occurred to me that those stories are usually told through the eyes of a male protagonist, through the male gaze, and those characters are well-rounded and tell the story and they become these heroines and protagonists."

She then asks, "What would happen if you look back at these stories, without necessarily changing them, but just seeing them through the female gaze?"

Kruger was sold on the series — which was adapted freely from Les Liaisons Dangereuses and serves as a prequel of sorts — because it gave the female characters, who "are often just the decoration of the male characters," a "real soul."

"That I thought was fresh, and that I thought was interesting, and I wanted to be part of," she says.

Caroline Dubois/HBO

Diane Kruger in 'The Seduction'

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As a period piece, The Seduction also offered Kruger a chance to cross off a major bucket list item. "It was so exciting. I think when you become an actor, it's on your bucket list to make, one day, a movie like that, and HBO really gave us the opportunity to live that moment," she says of how immersive filming the show was.

The actress notes, "All the costumes were made for us from scratch, which is almost unheard of in television. We shot in all the most beautiful chateaus and castles around Paris. The set design was just magnificent."

"Every detail was just helping us step into that world," she continues. "And it almost made it easy for us to forget that we were in modern-day Paris, to a certain extent."

Caroline Dubois/HBO

Vincent Lacoste and Diane Kruger in 'The Seduction'

That sentiment is one that Bravo, 37, shares. "[When] you have the costume and the castle and everything, it's almost like a little time machine," the Emily in Paris star tells PEOPLE of the extremely immersive set experience.

"And your inner child is like, 'Oh, this is as close as it gets to traveling back in time, and having a feel of what [life] used to be,' " he continues.

According to HBO, the six-episode limited series is a "thrilling exploration of the price of emotional & sexual freedom in a world where women had little" that sees the Marquise embark "on a daring journey to become Paris’ leading courtesan" after Valmont betrays her.

The Seduction premieres Friday, Nov. 14 on HBO, followed by weekly drops until the finale on Dec. 19.

on People

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Source: “AOL Entertainment”