When I was preparing to cover Maxton Hall Season 2, which aired on the 2025 TV schedule, I needed to decide whether I would stream it in its original language, German, or dubbed in English. I chose German because I wanted to hear the voices of the actors on screen. However, that got me wondering why they didn’t do the dub themselves, since at least the show’s leads, Damian Hardung and Harriet Herbig-Matten, fluently speak English. Now, the James actor has answered that question.
So, if you are watching Maxton Hall from an English-speaking country with an Amazon Prime subscription, there’s a chance you will stream it in English instead of German, which means you won't hear Hardung; you'll hear a different actor. During an interview on the Zach Sang Show, the titular host told the actor he streamed some episodes both ways and noticed big differences. To that point, the actor behind James, who spoke English during the interview, told the host that because dubbing is such a fast process, it’s hard to capture the emotions of the actors on screen. He said:
When you’re dubbing it, you only have like, what is it, two days in the studio to dub the whole show, or maybe it’s going ot be a week. It’s nowhere close to the amount of time that you have if you’re actually shooting it. So, to get into that emotional state where it actually feels true, what you’re saying, it’s almost impossible in a dubbing studio.
He knows that from experience too. While a different actor dubs James for Maxton Hall, Hardung has been the one to do dubs for his characters before. Recalling a time when he did the German dub for an English series he was in, he said:
I mean, because I’ve had it the other way around, I did it once when I shot a series, The Name of the Rose, in English, and then I dubbed myself in German, and I hated myself in German. Even though it is my native language, just because it’s such a different art form, it’s a different process, I’d say.
That explanation alone heavily implies why Hardung didn’t want to dub himself in the book-to-screen adaptation of Maxton Hall. However, Sang specifically asked him about the bingeable Amazon Prime show anyway, and in response, the actor said:
I did it for How to Sell Drugs, a Netflix show that I did a couple years ago, I did that for the first season, also hated it. And I was like, ‘I’m just not going to dub myself anymore.’ Like, ‘I’m going to do the original, and then have voice actors that just specifically do that for that part of the job.’
So, this choice was made with experience, and it wasn't for lack of trying. Damian Hardung has done dubbing before. However, he’s learned through experience that it’s not for him. He might fluently speak more than one language; however, he’s not a voice actor who is paid to dub full-time. So, he leaves that up to the experts, and that’s totally understandable.
While I think the work voice-over actors do to dub shows is amazing and makes projects significantly more accessible, I always prefer to watch shows in their original languages. I like to hear the original inflections and tones from the actors who were on set. Therefore, I’d be curious to hear their takes on the scenes in English too. However, I get why Damian Hardung doesn’t do that.
These are two different art forms, and they work together to create great global programming that millions can watch in multiple languages. Now, to watch Maxton Hall in German, English and many other languages, you can do it with an Amazon Prime subscription.
