her transformation from teen model to thriller star and doting mom

The blonde beauty was born and raised in Germany, and attended ballet lessons from an early age. Despite her intense training in the art form, Diane’s ballet career came to an abrupt end when she was a teenager due to a knee injury, and she pivoted towards the catwalk.

Diane was just 15 when she entered a modeling competition in Germany and won, securing her a deal with a management company. She moved to Paris to pursue modeling, and found early success. 

Despite her five-foot-seven stature – much shorter than the average model – Diane’s undeniable talent won her major campaigns with Chanel, Armani, YSL, Christian Dior, Burberry, Louis Vuitton, and landed her covers with Vogue Paris, Marie Claire and Cosmopolitan.  

“I got to spend my own money and live my own life, and at the same time, I got to travel the world and be this fabulous model, and it was so much fun. I mean, it was the best school of life,” she told The Laterals of her experience working in the industry.

While modeling was a key part of Diane’s life, she quickly realized that her dreams lay elsewhere. “I kind of fell into modeling and traveled around the world. And I was once really lonely and bored with that world,” she shared with The Laterals.

“I was thinking, ‘What can I do to fulfil my soul?’ because I don’t look like a model, I’m not six feet tall, and I don’t have that…alien kinda look?”

“A lot of people had said to me over the years to pursue acting,” Diane continued. “I had a boyfriend who said, ‘Just go to school and see if you could do it’…I did my first improv, it just became clear to me that I love doing this.”

The German-born star made her film debut in 2002’s The Piano Player, and quickly made an impact in Hollywood as Helen of Troy in 2004’s Troy opposite Brad Pitt and Orlando Bloom. She followed this up with a starring role in National Treasure with Nicolas Cage, cementing her place in the industry. 

Over the years, Diane began to shift her focus from action and drama to thrillers, like Unknown, The Infiltrator, In the Fade, The Operative and Out of the Blue.  

Diane was married to French actor Guillaume Canet from 2001 to 2006, then moved on with Dawson’s Creek star Joshua Jackson, whom she dated for 10 years. The pair split in 2016, and she told Vulture that their breakup was “a long time coming”.

A year prior to their split, Diane had met The Walking Dead actor Norman Reedus on the set of Sky, and the duo were first seen together as a couple in July 2016. 

“I didn’t know him before the film. We share a lot of intimate scenes. I was really nervous about meeting him and not being able to have a drink with him, or talk with him [before filming],” Diane told People. “He’s so relaxed. He’s really easy-going, very gentle.” 

The couple got engaged in 2021, three years after welcoming their daughter Nova. 

Diane took to motherhood like a duck to water, as she told People. “It’s been such a joy. I really relish it,” she said. “I love motherhood more than I thought I would. I’m really fully immersed in it.”

“Everything fell into place – my life, my work and being a mom – and it just makes everything better,” she continued. 

“You are really conscious that you are – at least for the first couple years of a child’s life – you’re so much in charge of curating their life. You just realize it one day: the way they’re going to look at the world is how you present it to them.”

“That is such a big responsibility and such a joy at the same time,” she added. 

As a working actress and full-time mom, Diane has to be selective about the roles she chooses for herself. 

“She’s definitely my number one priority, but also, the types of roles I take on, I think, have changed,” she told People. “Everything changes; it’s not just work, it’s also how I live my life, how I talk to people, how I interact with people, the stories.”

“I just finished a movie about a World War II female work camp, a concentration camp, and obviously she sees me on FaceTime all in makeup, and she’s starting to ask questions; she just turned seven,” she explained.

“So I have this responsibility very early on in her life, having to explain to her certain really important things [and also] how to make that child-friendly.”