Who is he?
He's the 18-year-old German actor in Stephen Daldry's new film, The Reader. Kros was cast when he was 15, but filming had to be put on hold for a couple of years.
Why the delay?
For a start, they had to wait until he turned 18 to shoot sex scenes with Kate Winslet. Kross plays Michael, a teenager in 1950s Germany, and she's Hanna, the older woman he falls for. He also had to learn English to play the part.
He was willing to wait two years to get naked with Kate Winslet?
Actually, Kross says he barely knew who she was before the film (though he'd seen Titanic). There was a bit of bother with his mum, too.
Worried about the sex scenes?
More concerned that filming would interfere with his schoolwork, apparently. Kross also plays Michael in his 20s. The character, by now a law student, watches as Hanna goes on trial in a case against former concentration-camp guards.
Tough job. How does he do?
American critics have been split down the middle, both about Kross and about the film. One review called his performance "notably natural". The New Yorker, however, called it "borderline bovine". For what's it's worth, we think he really comes into his own in the later scenes, when he is saddled with the guilt of postwar Germany - one of the generation of kids who couldn't look their parents in the eyes.
What next for Kross?
Good things, no doubt. He has just been named a 2009 Shooting Star, the Berlin film festival's annual acting awards for up-and-comers. He's also filming a new German film, Same Same But Different, in Cambodia.