Indeed, Kruger is as efficient and selective in her process as she is in her career choices. Best known for her role as Bridget von Hammersmark in Quentin Tarantino’s Inglorious Basterds, she appears this year in the family drama Fathers and Daughters with Amanda Seyfried, Aaron Paul, and Russell Crowe, and a French thriller (she tries to make at least one French film a year), Alice Winocour’s Disorder. “I play the wife of this wealthy Lebanese businessman who hires a soldier back from Iraq to be a bodyguard for the weekend,” she explains. “And…shit happens.” Next year, Kruger will appear in Brad Furman’s Pablo Escobar crime drama Infiltrator with Bryan Cranston, as well as Fabienne Berthaud’s Sky, in which she stars opposite Gilles Lellouche—with Lena Dunham and Norman Reedus—as one half of “a French couple that comes to the U.S. on a vacation trying to save their marriage, which doesn’t go so well.”

Kruger’s own story, by contrast, has a fairy-tale quality that includes becoming neighbors with Karl Lagerfeld in Paris (more on that later). Discovered at age 15 by a scout in her German village, she set off for Paris to pursue modeling. “I never thought it was anything that I would be able to do—I’m 5’7”, which isn’t very tall for a model,” she says. But within a few years, she’d booked everything from runway shows to Vogue covers (both French and German) to coveted fragrance campaigns for the likes of Chanel’s Allure and Giorgio Armani’s Acqua di Gio. Still, “A lot of casting directors that I went to would say, ‘Why are you not an actress? You’re so short.’” When she took the hint and enrolled in an acting class, Kruger was hooked.  “Growing up my favorite actress was Romy Schneider,” she says of one of her inspirations. “She moved to France to make a movie and fell in love with Alain Delon and made amazing films in French. I thought if the French liked her as a German then maybe they would like me.”

By turns charmingly self-effacing and Germanically to-the-point, Kruger was a hit in both Hollywood and fashion circles (she’s a regular on Best Dressed lists and a muse of designers like Karl Lagerfeld, Giambattista Valli, and Jason Wu, who are also close friends). “I met Karl when I was sixteen and, as you can imagine, I was very intimidated. But he was just very kind, encouraging, and funny. Since I’ve become an actress we’re collaborating more and we’re neighbors in Paris. His studio is literally next door and I drop by when he’s working all night.” Although Kruger says Lagerfeld’s not exactly knocking on her door to borrow sugar, the two do share cat photos (hers is a “tubby” stray named Hobbes; his is the Internet-famous Burmese, Choupette). “It’s always nice to talk to another cat lady,” Kruger says. “Karl politely tells me Hobbes is cute, even though he’s probably appalled at how tubby he is. ”

Hobbes is on his own for the moment. Within days of wrapping her shoot for The Violet Files, Kruger and longtime partner Joshua Jackson jetted off to Venice for the Film Festival, where she served on the jury. It was the kickoff to a season of red carpet events and press junkets, where, unlike many of her counterparts, Kruger acts as her own makeup artist and stylist. “I was always surrounded by great makeup artists when I was modeling and learned a lot from them,” she demurs. “I try to not overdo it and let the dress do all the talking. I’m really not into contouring and heavy foundation, but I have a pretty thick brow naturally and find that it gives me a lot of character.” If the world doesn’t like it, Kruger’s not bothered, although generally she can do no wrong. The crystal-and-cape-embellished custom Prada number she wore on the festival’s opening night, for example, charmed even the most bitter cynics. Kruger was judging—not competing—in the festival this season, but still came away with honors, as more than one fashion writer named her Venice’s “Winner of the Red Carpet.” Prepare to be dazzled.