Making the pivot to acting, as she has done so successfully, I wonder if she ever felt burdened by the preconceptions about her modelling career? Did she have to fight hard to be taken seriously?

‘You know, I didn’t feel like that. I mean, maybe behind my back people said something like this,’ she shrugs. ‘It’s taken me many years of paying my dues, which is in a way as it should be, learning the craft, and trying to be better with each picture.’

If modelling was the springboard out of Germany and the opening act of Diane’s life adventure, the second game-changing moment involved a homecoming of sorts, when she made In the Fade. 

At this point, she was an established Hollywood star, fêted not only for her acting résumé but for her red-carpet appearances, often alongside her beau Dawson’s Creek actor Joshua Jackson. But something else was calling her. 

She yearned to make a German-language film and pursued In the Fade director Fatih Akin, asking him to consider her. ‘In a way that changed my life a little bit. 

Obviously for my career, but as a human being as well.’ Diane prepped for the role by meeting people who had lost loved ones, including children, to murder. ‘That was the first time I really witnessed real-life grief. And it became a movie where I realised this really wasn’t about me and my performance, but about showing homage and respect to people who go through something like this,’ she says.

This was also a period of loss in Diane’s own life. She suffered two devastating bereavements when her grandmother and stepfather of 25 years passed away. Her decade-long relationship with Jackson came to an end around this time, too. ‘It just felt like kismet, in a way, coming together around this period,’ says Diane. 

‘I didn’t work for a good six months after that movie.’ Supporting her mother, who was consumed by grief, became a priority. ‘It was a bit of a reset in my life. I feel like it brought me closer to my family… and then meeting someone who ultimately will be the father of my child,’ she says. ‘Life – one door closes and another window opens.’