‘MY FAMILY IS EVERYTHING’ Actress Teresa Palmer gets personal
Aussie actress Teresa Palmer on playing a witch and her exciting new role as soon-to-be mother to her daughter
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eresa Palmer thought she’d be fine. The glamorous Australian actress had shot action movies so, honestly, how hard could it be? She nervously put one foot in and then the other – then felt like her whole world was about to turn upside down.
Palmer was on the set of her new supernatural TV series, A Discovery of Witches, shooting a rowing scene. She blames Deborah Harkness, the author of the All Souls trilogy of books upon which the series is based, for giving her a false sense of security. “She gave me a bum steer,” Palmer, 32, tells WHO. “She said, ‘ You’ve done a lot of yoga, so you’re going to be great.’ I jumped into the boat and thought I was about to tip it and go arse up.”
She may have felt like she was in uncharted waters, but the rest of her life is in perfect balance. Palmer is married to actor-director Mark Webber, 38, and they have two children, Bodhi Rain, 4, and Forest Sage, 2 in December. She’s also stepmother to Webber’s son, Isaac, 10, from a previous relationship. And their brood is growing, with the Hackshaw Ridge actress announcing last month via a video on Instagram that she’s pregnant with her third child – a girl – due in April.
“I’m feeling so great,” Palmer says of her pregnancy. “I’m so lucky and the boys are absolutely in love with the idea of having a little sister. All three of them are over the moon about their baby sister and they want her to come now.”
Being a working mother is obviously never easy, but Palmer does her best to make it work. And the way she does that is by taking her family with her on movie and TV shoots. For A Discovery of Witches, the Los Angeles–based actress relocated the family to the UK for six months while she filmed the series. “We are one travelling family,” she says. “We all go together.”
She’s fiercely proud to be working in an era that champions women and mothers – especially in light of the #Metoo movement. “I’m in an industry that is moving towards the celebration of women and that is really embracing working mothers,” she says. “I have had such a positive experience going from job to job. I’ve always been really upfront with people about who I am as a person and as a parent, and how I bring my children with me everywhere. I feel empowered because I don’t have to choose between work and family.”
And if she did have to make that choice? “I would choose my family and I would get a regular job,” she admits. “My mum [Paula Sanders] is like, ‘If you’d continued working at Hungry Jacks, I would have been just as proud of you.’ She is just that way.”
In the series, Palmer plays Diana Bishop, an academic and reluctant witch who uncovers an ancient manuscript in Oxford’s Bodleian Library. The manuscript, which
had been missing for hundreds of years, leads to her forming an alliance with vampire Matthew Clairmont (Matthew Goode) to protect the secrets of the book.
Granted, tales of witches and vampires may not be to everyone’s taste. But Palmer was attracted to the role of Bishop because she seemed so … well, real. It is, after all, a story about a woman who must learn to accept she’s different.
“She needs to embrace who she truly is,” Palmer says. “And she is a woman with great power who comes from this really wonderful world that she has been ignoring and running away from for many, many years. “I think that’s quite a beautiful metaphor for embracing who you are and learning to love that. That’s what she does. Not only does she embrace that, she soars.”
Palmer also finds it appealing that her character is riddled with her own insecurities and vulnerabilities. “That’s so human for me,” she says. “I think we need to be portraying characters that are relatable and we can understand are going through the peaks and valleys of life and navigate them in the best way possible. She
was really inspiring for me.”
Growing up, Adelaide-born Palmer – who was named after Mother Teresa – went to private Catholic school Mercedes College. When her parents divorced, she spent time in public housing with her mother and on her father’s farm. Her career was kickstarted when she won “Search for a Movie Star” casting competition, and appeared in local films Wolf Creek (2005) and December Boys (2007), before she found success in Hollywood and with roles in I Am Number Four (2011), Warm Bodies (2013) and the Point Break remake (2015).
For all her success, Palmer remains down-to-earth and genuinely friendly. “I remember when I started this journey into acting, the most important thing was not to lose myself,” she says. “I just wanted to be true to who I was and the moment that I felt a disconnect to myself I always told myself I would leave this industry and do something else.”
And, yes, she has considered quitting acting, returning to Australia and living a life away from the spotlight of fame. “There have been various times over the years where I’ve thought I might go back to Australia and be a schoolteacher. I’ve kept in touch with all of my friends. They are all still my best friends.
“All the events and the red carpets … They’re a part of my job, but my job truly doesn’t define who I am as a person. I have a whole other big, rich life with my family and my friends. And then I get to go and play make-believe as a career.”
A Discovery of Witches is set in Oxford, England, in and around the famous university – although much of it was actually shot in Cardiff, Wales. With its distinctive European architecture as a backdrop, the series certainly looks different to most supernatural series, and Palmer says it was hard not to be swept up in the grandeur of the locations at which they shot. “I think the whole thing feels epic,” she says.
Wrapping her head around the “witchiness” of the role was a challenge in itself, but so too was playing an academic surrounded by books. Palmer says she had to learn how her character would handle precious texts. The series itself with its library scenes is a kind of homage to a time when people pored over books, rather than smart phones.
“My dad tells me when I was young, all I wanted to do was read,” Palmer says. “No, I feel I have zero time on my hands to read, being a mother to three boys – and expecting another baby. When do I ever get to read?”
A Discovery of Witches airs Thurs., Nov. 15 at 8.30pm (AEDT) on Fox8
“I just wanted to be true to who I was”