Entrevista com o Damian Hardung e Sonja Weißer sobre a 1ª temporada de Maxton Hall.
------------------------------------------------
INTERVIEW WITH DAMIAN HARDUNG AND HIS SERIES SISTER SONJA WEISSER
"James is an insanely toxic, masculine guy but suddenly he's forced into the moment by Ruby." Damian Hardung
Maxton Hall is set in two very different social worlds. Has dealing with this topic also influenced you personally?
SONJA: When familiarizing ourselves with the world in which Maxton Hall is set, touching on the topic of gender inequality is of course unavoidable.
DAMIAN: What is often meant by social worlds, namely economic inequality, also concerns me enormously in my private life in terms of its origins and impact. Even if I find the terminology unfortunate, because we confuse social with economic.
SONJA: In my particular preparation, the overprivileged nature of the Beauforts stood out above all. In general, the costumes, locations, props etc. made it possible to empathize a little with what it might be like to be so rich. It was a completely new and absurd world.
DAMIAN: A Brief History of Equality by Thomas Piketty is certainly one of the books that got me thinking the most last year. For James, however, these considerations play no role, as he only knows his world and is initially not interested in any other.
What made the two characters James and Lydia interesting for you?
DAMIAN: James is an insanely toxic, masculine guy who gets away with everything. He lives for the excess, knows no future, flees from himself, but is suddenly forced into the moment by Ruby.
SONJA: In my eyes, Lyd a is an extremely complex character with a very cool exterior. I found this interaction very interesting and it made the first reading very exciting for me, as I was able to discover and work out what was behind such a strict exterior.
SONJA: What struck me most when I was dealing with Lydia was that her greatest weakness, the greatest weakness of human beings, is love. And that she has to deal with her biggest conflicts because of it. Whether romantic love, familial love or passion. And that is what makes her so approachable despite her outer coldness.
DAMIAN: I felt the same way It's a bit of a challenge to build up such a tough façade and then feel it collapse.
Damian, your character James resorts to drastic measures in Maxton Hall to help his sister Lydia. Can you understand that?
DAMIAN: The Things we do for Love."
James is under enormous pressure to perform, which he finds difficult to escape. You yourself are studying medicine and are involved in various projects as an actor. How similar is this pressure to your own?
DAMIAN: Quite like James, who has to function as the head for Young Beaufort, I can only ask now, what pressure? James and I do everything out of passion. On a more serious note, pressure to perform has definitely played a big part in my life, but I'm trying to stop the fear of failure from causing me constant stress. I think I'm getting better at it, at least I feel less stressed.
Which moments during filming do you particularly remember?
SONJA: The most intense moment was probably when I was told that I could play Lydia. Damian and I had just talk bout the auditioned for Mortimer and I already knew that he had been cast. But I was only officially there that day to audition, and during a short break, everyone present stood in front of Damian and me and announced that I would be playing Lydia, "May we introduce you to your sister". That was amazing, I was just extremely happy and Damian was too.
DAMIAN: Absolutely, I was very happy for you. I remember one other sentence in particular: 'The partridges can't fly', just before about 50 partridges flew into the fray. Nevertheless, we still had a day of wildlife scenes ahead of us, but now without partridges. Since then, there have been wild partridges in the Hanover area.
SONJA: That was very funny! In general, the group scenes with the others from the cast were always particularly nice because we got on so well with each other.
