Magic moments:

Teresa Palmer (above right) appears in the drama A Discovery Of Witches opposite former Downton Abbey star Matthew Goode (left). She tells Sarah Nealon about her busy family life and playing Sam Neill’s daughter in an upcoming Australian film.

Why Teresa Palmer is a reluctant witch in her latest drama series.

Pointy hats, broomsticks and black cats are usually associated with witches – at least in children’s stories. But you won’t find them in A Discovery Of Witches, a romantic supernatural series starring Australian actress Teresa Palmer.

Palmer, who grew up in Adelaide, plays Diana Bishop, a historian and reluctant witch in the pretty university city of Oxford, who tries to keep her magical powers secret.

“She doesn’t want to be a witch,” says Palmer of her character. “She wants to be as human as possible. So it’s great in that I didn’t have to play this idea of what a witch is.”

Set in modern-day times, Diana is a keen rower which meant rowing lessons for Palmer, 32.

“Deb Harkness, who wrote the book, she’s a rower,” says Palmer, “and she was like, ‘Oh you’re a yogi, this is going to be so easy for you’.

“So I went in with this false sense of confidence. I got there for the lesson and immediately my teacher put me in the boat and I just about went arse up.”

A Discovery Of Witches is the first in the All Souls trilogy of books by American author Deborah Harkness. (The next two books will form the basis for two more seasons of A Discovery Of Witches.)

“I met with her before we started shooting and what struck me about Deb was just how similar she is to Diana,” says Palmer.

“As an author she really wrote what she knew and she is a historian, she’s a professor, she’s a rower, she’s a runner and that’s just who she’s always been. So it was really lovely just to get behind the brain of the woman who wrote these stories and created this character.”

The TV series also stars Alex Kingston (ER) and Downton Abbey’s Matthew Goode, who plays Matthew Clairmont, a geneticist who is also a 1500-year-old vampire.

“He’s just so perfectly cast in the role of Matthew Clairmont because he’s so funny and charming yet cheeky and brooding and vulnerable and sensitive,” says Palmer of her co-star. “All the things that Matthew Clairmont is, Matthew Goode is.”

At the crux of A Discovery Of Witches is the romance between Matthew Clairmont and Diana Bishop (Goode’s and Palmer’s characters).

“It’s a forbidden love because it’s against the law of species to have cross species relationships,” says Palmer. “So it gets very dangerous for us because I’m a witch and he’s a vampire and we fall in love with each other and it’s completely forbidden for any sort of interspecies relationship so that is what drives the story.”

Much of A Discovery Of Witches was filmed in Wales and for Palmer, who lives in Adelaide and Los Angeles, it meant uprooting her sons Bodhi, four, and Forest, who turns two next month, and relocating to Cardiff for six months.

Because of a clash in work commitments, Palmer’s actor and film-maker husband Mark Webber, 38, couldn’t be with the family.

“It was probably the most challenging experience I’ve had working and having my babies because my husband wasn’t with us,” she says.

“So it meant my mum would split the day with a babysitter and I’d work a 15-hour day.

“My mum would do half a day and a babysitter would take over for the other half. But then the babysitter and my mum would go home so after shooting a 15-hour day, I’d be with the boys and do books and bedtime and have dinner and put them to bed. And I’d be picked up seven hours later to start work again. So it was really six months of not a lot of sleep.”

Palmer, who has a parenting blog and is pregnant with her third child, says that when she begins filming A Discovery Of Witches’ second season next year, her husband will accompany the family to Cardiff.

“I’ve banned my husband from working for six months for the next season,” she says.

Palmer has been acting since her school days and is more used to acting in films than television.

This year Palmer enjoyed playing Sam Neill’s daughter in Ride Like A Girl, a yet-to-be released film directed by Rachel Griffiths (Six Feet Under, Brothers And Sisters) about Melbourne Cupwinning jockey Michelle Payne.

“He’s got a really funny dry sense of humour,” she says of Neill.

“He was very dedicated to the role. He was just a great guy to be around. He was very easy to work with. Very talented. And just a joyful guy. We were very lucky that he agreed to be part of the movie. He really brought something incredibly special to that role.”

“It gets very dangerous for us because I’m a witch and he’s a vampire and we fall in love with each other.”

– Teresa Palmer