Philipp Maximilian, a 32-year-old German- and Austrian-raised actor, visited Decatur students taking German II and IB German to talk to them in German, tell them about his early life in Germany and discuss the new movie he is acting in that’s being filmed here in Decatur.  

The movie is called “Jungle Cruise”. It’s a Disney film based off of a Disney World theme park ride also called Jungle Cruise. Maximilian is one of the mercenaries of the main villain. Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt are also starring in this film and Maximilian gets to work with both of them.

“Jungle Cruise” is Maximilian’s biggest acting gig yet. He has also played a character named Ben in the second season of a television series called “Atlanta”, he’s played a role in “My Life in Venice Beach”, “Music. Love. Wasted.”, “Passanten”, “All the Lovely Wayside Things”, “Clearing Waters”, “Exposed”, “One and Only”, “Undrafted”, “Temporal” and “White Wolves”. 

Since Maximilian was here in Decatur for his movie shooting, one of the women he was working with who was managing him decided to reach out to German teacher Brent Eickhoff and offer to speak to some of his classes.

On Tuesday the week before fall break, Maximilian came and answered some questions the students had prepared for him the day prior and talked to them about his life growing up in Austria.

At age 18, Maximilian starred as Romeo in “Romeo and Juliet” which would be performed in some of Europe’s most famous venues. After graduating high school and attending Berlin’s prestigious Performing Arts Conservatory, Maximilian moved to Los Angeles to further his acting career.

Maximilian discussed certain German and American dialects, his family, his acting career and his past. In class the day before Maximillian came, the students wrote down questions to ask Maximilian in German and he answered them to the entire group in English. Some of the questions that students asked were about his life in Germany and Austria while others were random stuff like, “What’s your favorite shoe brand?” or “Who is your favorite actor?”.

In all, the students had a great learning experience from meeting Maximilian and he enjoyed answering all the questions and visiting Decatur.