Philipp Danne: Preserving the child in oneself

German-born Philipp Danne is best known for his leading role in In aller Freundschaft – Die jungen Ärzte, but was already seen in several other TV series, movies and numerous thrillers. Discover Germany speaks to the young actor to find out more about him, his career and his future plans.

You are best known as Ben Ahlbeck in In aller Freundschaft – Die jungen Ärzte. Could you imagine working as a doctor in real life, or is acting your dream profession?

P. Danne: I have profound respect for the profession of doctor – maybe this even grew through my role as Ben Ahlbeck. But to actually be responsible for a patient’s survival in everyday professional life would simply be too much responsibility for me. Furthermore, I would probably fail the degree course anyway.

How did you end up as an actor? You state in several sources that you began acting at a very young age?

P. Danne: Exactly. My agent Maria Schwarz – who is still my agent today – was searching for talents in primary schools back then and my teacher luckily pointed towards me. That’s why I already was able to play various awesome roles when I was still in school. Today, I can happily say that acting is still my dream profession.

You come from Cologne and also live there at the moment. What does ‘home’ mean for you? Could you ever imagine moving to another city or region?

P. Danne: Actually I couldn’t imagine moving away from Cologne at all – at least within Germany. My heart simply belongs to this city. But if I ever decide to move away from Cologne, I would probably end up overseas.

What are the best things about acting and which factors might not be so positive?

P. Danne: As an actor, you preserve the child in you – you ‘play’ in your job pretty much. It is an incredibly diverse job with many facets. You get to know plenty of interesting people and you get to see places that you probably wouldn’t see otherwise. But a drawback of the job is the pressure that you have to cope with. With time, you learn to deal with defeats and you learn to not get discouraged but as a young actor, this was quite difficult at times.

What else is planned for this year? What can we look forward to?

P. Danne: I’m still very happy at Die jungen Ärzte and we’re just in the middle of shooting the third season. Besides this, nothing is really definite yet but our production luckily offers us the possibility to realise other projects besides the series.

Is there an absolute dream role that you would love to play at some point in the future?

P. Danne: Of course, many dream roles exist. Although I already had the chance to shoot in America, it is still a big dream of mine to work there at some point.

You have already achieved a great deal in your life. What dreams and wishes does a Philipp Danne still have?

P. Danne: I’m actually very happy with my life and how everything has turned out so far. But, of course, I still have further dreams that I would like to realise. However, for this, I take Beppo – the street cleaner from Michael Ende’s Momo – as my role model: one broom stroke at a time without already looking at the end of the street at the beginning.

TEXT: NANE STEINHOFF | PHOTO © JON AILES