You're expressing the sentiment a lot of people felt when director Wolfgang Petersen chose an unknown face to be the one "that launched a thousand ships."

That is the famous description of Helen of Troy, one of the great beauties of history. The role went to German actress Diane Kruger, who was a complete unknown at the time -- and that's exactly why Petersen wanted her.

She was just about the only unknown actor in the thing. "Troy" (released in 2004 -- not exactly "a few years ago," I'm sorry to say) was loaded with big, expensive stars. Brad Pitt starred as the mighty (and pouty) Achilles while Eric Bana played his rival Hector, Brian Cox was King Agamemnon while Peter O'Toole played his rival King Priam, Sean Bean played Odysseus, Orlando Bloom was Paris -- the A-list goes on.

That makes it all the more surprising that they went with a rookie for Helen. The studio reportedly demanded a big star for that role, too -- Halle Berry, Keira Knightley, Jennifer Lopez, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Nicole Kidman were all considered -- but Petersen resisted. Indeed, he reportedly didn't want Helen to actually appear in the film at all, feeling that no face could live up to the legend, and certainly not a Hollywood face that people already knew. So he insisted on an unknown and selected Kruger out of a huge number of applicants.

For Kruger, "Troy" was the gig that launched -- maybe not a thousand projects but certainly quite a few. She's gone on to star in a number of blockbuster films, including "National Treasure" (2004) and its sequel (2007), and "Inglourious Basterds" (2009), which reunited her with "Troy" co-star Brad Pitt. She's even dabbled in television, starring in both seasons of the critically beloved FX series "The Bridge." 

And now she has a few new things coming down the pipe, including the series "Swimming With Sharks," set to debut later this year on the new streaming service Quibi, and the star-studded spy film "355," set to premiere in 2021.

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