“Maxton Hall”’s Damian Hardung on Juggling Med School While Filming Hit Series: ‘Necessary to Stay Sane’ (Exclusive)

Damian Hardung is not only the star of Maxton Hall, Prime Video’s most successful international original series ever — he’s also studying medicine.

The 27-year-old German actor plays James Beaufort in the series, which was adapted from Mona Kasten’s bestselling Save Me trilogy, alongside Harriet Herbig-Matten, who plays his love interest, the studious Ruby Bell.

In season 2, things between the couple start off rocky, after James betrays Ruby following his mother’s death, and the first few episodes of the season were particularly intense to film. So much so that Hardung tells PEOPLE, “Honestly, I don’t think it was possible [to decompress] during the shooting period.”

“I think I only really decompressed after,” he says. “I did that by just leaving the country, studying a lot. I studied for my second state exam in med school, so that was a lot of fun.”

Juggling med school while filming the second season — which filmed from June to September last year — sounds like too much for one person to manage. Hardung seems to have the opposite perspective, particularly because of how dark the subject matter was in the second installment, as James navigated grief and guilt over his betrayal, while also continuing to face the wrath of his father’s expectations.

“Well, you could say it’s insane or it’s sane, and I would say it’s the sane part, because it’s kind of necessary to stay sane for me,” he says.

“Shooting that for such a long time, I feel like, if I had just gone back-to-back shooting or back to a break doing nothing, I don’t know if I would’ve come out of it. I don’t know how I would’ve dealt with that. So I really need another straw to hold onto.”

Studying gives him “something to focus on,” which helped after filming such a dark storyline. “It’s a different world to immerse myself in, and the medical field definitely is one that….offers itself to be immersed in. And so I need it and I feed from it, I feel like, to an extent.”

Hardung described season 2 as “much bleaker” than season 1, “but also more honest in a way and more grown up.”

“Which I think is important,” he said. “Because we’ve seen [James], the last time, when his mother has just passed away, and I feel like….[he] needs to have a certain timeframe of actually working on his grief and going through the different stages of grief.”

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer​​, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

The first five episodes of season 2 are now streaming on Prime Video, and the finale drops Friday, Nov. 28. This season has seen Ruby and James come back to each other after he left her devastated as he lashed out while at the peak of his grief.

The challenges they face are still mounting, though, as are those of their friends. Along with Hardung and Herbig-Matten, 22, Maxton Hall stars Sonja Weißer (Lydia), Andrea Guo (Lin), Ben Felipe (Cyril), Fedja van Huêt (Mortimer), Runa Greiner (Ember), Eli Riccardi (Elaine) and Justus Riesner (Alistair).

The season 2 finale of Maxton Hall premieres Friday, Nov. 28 on Prime Video.