Warning: Major spoilers ahead for Maxton Hall season 2.
Damian Hardung has always relished stepping into the (designer) shoes of James Beaufort, the wealthy prep student he plays in Prime Video’s Maxton Hall. But as he prepared to shoot season 2 of the smash-hit YA romantic drama, which became the Amazon streamer’s most-watched international original series in 2024, Hardung knew that his character would have to venture into some really dark emotional territory. And while he may not consider himself a Method actor, the intense shift led the German star to seriously question the personal emotional toll of inhabiting that heavy headspace for weeks on end.
“I heard this one fan theory that the show is not about a love story at all in the second season, but it’s actually about a broken child healing his trauma,” Hardung tells Teen Vogue. “I think that is a very good analysis, because we’ve seen him being taught, playing chess with his father, that it’s just always about winning. I think having him deal with that in a timeframe that’s actually feasible could be a great role model for young men out there, especially because in the first season we showcased him as such a toxic male.”
Whereas the first season chronicled the whirlwind enemies-to-lovers arc between James and working-class scholarship student Ruby Bell (Harriet Herbig-Matten), the second found the couple struggling to stay together as James finally wrestled with his own demons (including the influence that his domineering father, Mortimer, has on his life). Over the course of the latest six episodes, as he grieves the sudden loss of his mother Cordelia, James goes from hitting rock bottom — where he reverted back to substance abuse to dull his pain and cheated on Ruby while under the influence — to seeking help from a trauma/PTSD counsellor to address his most self-destructive tendencies.
“With him going to therapy, it was so important for me, after he f*cked up so badly, to showcase that she’s setting her boundaries and he’s really understanding that she can’t fix him, but it’s actually his own work that he has to do,” explains Hardung, who believes Ruby is ultimately the catalyst for James to examine his own behavior. “The interesting thing is that we give him the time to learn and grow, because that process of bettering yourself is never going to be a linear process. I was just really happy that we gave it the honesty that it deserves, especially in a YA genre.”
Speaking with Teen Vogue during a recent trip to New York City, where he actually lived for a year in his early teens while studying at a private school on a scholarship, Hardung breaks down all of the major twists and turns in the latest chapter of Ruby and James’ love story — including how that devastating cliffhanger sets the scene for the third and final season, which just wrapped production in Europe.
Damian Hardung: I think [Harriet and I are] on the same page there, because we’ve talked about this! [Laughs.] I definitely think he fell first and then he fell harder, because there’s a scene in episode 2 of season 1 on the lacrosse field where she’s coming to apologize [for yelling at him in front of their classmates] and she’s saying, “Oh, the dress got burned,” and he’s like, “Burned?” It’s the first time that he sees her as more than just being a function to protect his sister, Lydia.
I think there’s a little spark there, and in the third episode, he’s just completely lost it when they’re in the car [after James saves Ruby from the swimming pool]. I love that little line where he looks up in the car while holding her, and he’s looking into [his chauffeur] Percy’s eyes and questioning himself, like, “Percy, what am I doing here?” I think that’s the moment he truly realized there’s something going on within him that he can’t really define because he’s not been taught to do so. Love is about giving up control, and I think the one thing that he’s learned growing up is that you always want to exert control [over others].
DH: There’s definitely one part of the chemistry that I kind of missed going into the second season, which was the arrogant James I got to portray a lot in season 1 — just because it’s so much fun to play, having that arrogance as an armor around you all the time. In the second season, it’s much more revolving around the yearning, and the yearning of a man that knows he did a mistake and he’s trying to compensate for that. But then also understanding that a lot of fighting for love is not about making compromises or making promises to make up for something. It’s just about letting the other person make the decision for themselves. There’s a really important line in episode 5 where I tell her, “The old James would’ve made up something to make you stay, but the new James just wants you to listen to your heart. As long as you listen to your heart, not to your fears, it’ll be alright.” I feel like trusting your soulmate with their own decision is also a form of love.
DH: In a way, you always have to protect your character, right? Even the most evil person is never going to believe himself as being the devil. So, in his own world, he needs to justify what he did to remain a consonant person. We [as humans] hate being dissonant between what we’re doing and what we’re thinking. For him, it’s this f*cked up way of trying to protect Ruby by pushing her away, because in his fear, [he thinks] he’ll take her down [with him] after losing his mom.
And then at rock bottom, there’s just this yearning for some form of stability because his mother passed away. His father can’t be the column that he needs in his life, so the last thing he really can hold onto is Ruby. My favorite moment in the entire show is exactly that moment you pinpointed, where he realizes she’s going to leave, and he can’t make her stay. My scene objective up until that point was, “I need you to stay.” And my character was so embarrassed at that moment that [he thinks], “I’d rather push her away than be hurt one more time.” There’s this one [camera] setup which pushes closer on me, where he suddenly snaps and he has this almost Star Wars moment: “If you’re not my friend, you’re my enemy. You should leave.”
I remember when we shot it, it was much worse [than what was used in the final cut]. The producers and the author were like, “Well, we can’t harm him too much, because if he’s going to really scream at the top of his lungs, people are going to hate him for that.” But when we shot it, I went all the way. The next shooting day, I had no voice left. I remember I was in ADR a couple months later, and the producer came up to me and was like, “Damian, you’re doing this scene really weirdly. What was going on on that set?” I was like, “I didn’t have a voice, because I was screaming the whole day before that.” But they cut [the scream] out, and I think rightfully so, because it would’ve really hurt my character in a way that people may not have forgiven him.
DH: I think something’s moved within him when he meets Scott Granger, the guy that’s supposed to actually speak, because he sees a lot of himself in Scott. I really like that in episode 2 when James poses that question, “What happened to your friends?” Scott just replies, “Well, a lot of them are not my friends anymore,” because he’s not the person anymore that he used to be. I think acknowledging that amount of change was something that brought James over the edge of publicly accepting the love, and it forged the bond between them really beautifully, and it informs a lot of their growth as a couple for the next episodes.
DH: It never works! The whole season, I’m like, “Oh my gosh, just get a hotel room, guys! Please, you’re rich enough.” Sorry to interrupt, but what the f*ck was up with the waiter? [James is thinking] “I’m buying [out] the entire restaurant, and it’s all for ourselves, and he’s just not letting us have our fun. What’s your deal? Just leave.” I don’t get it. [Laughs.]
DH: I think it’s just important to have that in there, because we’ve been seeing them for two seasons now, and they haven’t gone on one date. [People will think] “What sh*tty love show is this? What are you guys doing?” [Laughs.] So I think it was important to have [their first date] in a James Beaufort-y way as well, where he does still acknowledge his own clichés and asks, “Is this too cliche?” in the beginning. He can kind of reference himself in a sarcastic way, and that’s something that he wouldn’t have been able to do in season 1. It’s definitely something that arose from him going to therapy.
DH: It was funny because while shooting, I felt like I was breaking character in a way. It just didn’t feel very James Beaufort-y to me, to be honest.
DH: I felt like it was a bit too comedic, in a way, [where he’s] losing his self-esteem or his confidence. I get that he’s trying to play nice in front of his parents-in-law, [but] he was not very articulate about it, and I feel like he could have come up with a more interesting response to the situation in that room.
I did hear the fan comments about how they wished that there was more interaction between the parents and him, to understand that this is the family that he never had. I think that’s one element to it as well, and I understood why it didn’t make it into the final cut, because in a way, [the deleted scene] is the Bell family questioning him and not offering him a place of love. I feel like having that scene with the cookie in there kind of defies that [love] a bit, because they’re not accepting him unconditionally, which I understand. They’re protecting their daughter, and that’s completely fine. But within the realm of the story, I think it really makes the juxtaposition nicer to have them as this perfect loving family [who welcomes James], as opposed to his own family, where everything was bleak.
DH: There’s a beautiful scene in episode 5 in the boardroom, where [James] discovers that Ruby’s mom lost her job because of [Mortimer]. I saw this really funny fan video where someone was like, “You know it’s really important because he’s rapping again,” because sometimes, in these intense scenes, I tend to speak really quickly. But that scene is really important, because it’s the first time James walks out on Mortimer, really. Mortimer is holding him by the arm in that scene, like, “If you leave now, you’ll regret it.”
And then we have the mirror image in episode 6, where [the rest of the family thinks] Mortimer may have forged [Cordelia’s] last will, and suddenly James is really in this emotional state, and then he holds [Mortimer’s] arm. It’s a really small beat, but he realizes, mimicking those same actions, that he has become what he hates about his father, and then he lets him loose and tells him, really calmly, “F*ck you.” That’s the first time he uses the F-word, and then he explains that, “We are not alone. We have a family. You’re the one who’s standing alone.”
I think that’s the pivotal moment where [James] understands that the love you yearn for from a father — which is completely understandable as a human being — he will never be able to receive that from him. I think that’s the moment that James finally realizes he will have to let that need go. He will receive that love from someplace else, but he’ll never receive it from his father. And that’s a hurtful but really important message to take away and learn and grow from.
DH: James is also crying in her arms! I just want to put that out there. [Laughs.] It’s interesting you asked that, because the [original] ending was actually even earlier. When they showed the season to us for the first time, they ended on Graham being perplexed about which parents [were being called to the school by the administrators], because he was thinking of a different picture in his head. Our storyline ended with us just walking happily across the courtyard. So they wanted to have this A-storyline with us happily walking across the courtyard, where all is good. And then there’s the B-storyline with Graham, where we know something is coming.
I understood it from a [story] level, but I think all of us actors left the screening, and we’re like,
“Something is missing. We want the full emotional impact.” I feel like by choosing to end on this “all is lost” moment — Graham being arrested, Lydia having lost it, Ruby having lost everything, James seeing that destruction firsthand — it’s such an emotional hit that I hope will get people to yearn for the third season.
DH: Obviously, that’s going to be a very destructive moment for the relationship and a hard thing to deal with. It is something he did before the relationship, but it was done with the intention that the photo could possibly be used [against Ruby], so it’s something that is sort of a flashback to the old, pre-therapy James. I think having that almost as an emotional package that he still has to unpack and deal with in the now-healthy [relationship] that they have found is definitely something that’s going to inform a lot of the action, the plot, and the emotional growth of the two characters in season 3.
DH: A lot of people in my family are doctors — both my parents are, my brothers are. So it was kind of like a default, but not out of pressure, but out of joy, because I’ve seen how much people appreciate the profession and how much they’re taking out of it. They love to be in that space and continue to learn, and I think what’s beautiful about medicine is you can never stop learning. Progress is being made by medical research that’s incredibly fast at times, and trying to keep up with that is a challenge in itself. I finished my second state exam this spring. I’m going to start, hopefully, my last year of practical rotations next year, and then I’ll be a doctor.
DH: [Laughs.] At this point, I just want to enjoy what I’m doing; I want to be happy with what I’m doing. I feel like having the freedom to decide that is the highest goal to achieve. I think this psychologist Daniel Kahneman put it beautifully: There’s this end-of-history illusion that we assume that the person that we are now is the person that we’re always designed to become, so we underestimate the possibility of that change. He actually found evidence that we’re really bad at predicting what will make us happy in 10 years, so I don’t want to make that decision for the 37-year-old me. I want to give him the space to decide for himself.
