Diane Kruger to play police detective with Asperger's in new FX series 'The Bridge'

NEW YORK, March 29 (UPI) -- German-born actress Diane Kruger says she has signed on to star in "The Bridge," a new FX crime drama set on the Mexican-American border.

"It's an American adaptation of a Scandinavian show," Kruger told United Press International in New York this week.

"It's myself and Demian Bichir. [It's about] immigration, drug cartels. My character suffers from Asperger's [syndrome,] so there is a whole aspect to that as well."

The actress said she has been doing a lot of research to prepare for her role as a police detective on the show, which is to premiere this summer.

"That's all I've been doing," she said. "We're very lucky because Autism Speaks just came on board to be a partner of the show and we found this amazing young man who has Asperger's, who is going to help me portray it accurately because it is a really, more-common-than-ever, form of autism. People only identified it as being on the spectrum in 1994, so that's not very long and autism supposedly has risen in the past 10 years over 30 percent."

Kruger -- whose credits include "Troy," "National Treasure" and "Inglourious Basterds" -- said even if "The Bridge" becomes a hit, she expects to continue working on films during breaks.

"It's cable, right? So, it's 12 episodes [a season]. It's like a movie, 4 1/2 months," she said in reference to the short shooting schedule.

Kruger can now be seen in the movie "The Host," a futuristic, alien-invasion tale based on the book by "Twilight" creator Stephenie Meyer.

"If you are a fan of Stephenie Meyer's, I actually think you will really like this, obviously," Kruger said. "But I do also feel like sci-fi is fun and there is a lot of action and I think it's a really romantic, yet thrilling, piece."

Co-starring Saoirse Ronan, William Hurt, Frances Fisher, Max Irons and Jake Abel, "The Host" is in theaters now.