TERESA PALMER LABOUR OF LOVE
One of Teresa Palmer’s most cherished memories was made in the third row of an Audi Q7. The actor nearly gave birth on the way to hospital in the luxury SUV, making it with minutes to spare. Her daughter was strapped into her car seat in the second row, so the rear pews were the only option.
“My water broke everywhere and the baby came five minutes after I got out of the car,” Palmer says.
Her son was almost born in the lap of leather-lined luxury but Palmer remembers more working class wheels from her childhood.
Her mother went through a succession of very second-hand cars including a Datsun Bluebird, Volkswagen Beetle, Mini Minor and Holden Barina.
“They would typically break down within the first six months of my mum having them. We had all the dodgy ones but they were really fun,” she says.
“The suspension was never good on any of them and my mum would speed over the bumps in the road with me and my friends and we’d all go flying across the back. It was one of my favourite memories.”
When it came time to take the wheel herself, she learned to drive in her mother’s red Barina.
“It was a manual so it was really fun to drive. I felt like a real revhead. I bought a $40 subwoofer from Cash Converters and would listen to Dr Dre as I cruised around in my Barina as a 16-year-old thinking I was pretty cool,” she says.
Alas the Barina only lasted about two months and her next car was a fleet special from a local real estate chain — a bright yellow Hyundai Accent (with the stickers removed).
“I thought it was such a cool car but most other people didn’t,” she says.
She gave it to her mother when she left for the big smoke — and traffic — of LA.
“The first year was really daunting,” she says. But she eventually found her feet.
“In LA it’s very much about finding the backstreets and knowing those routes,” she says. The road rules are also less strictly applied in the US.
When she and actor husband Mark Webber come back to Australia, “we always end up getting speeding tickets. In America, it’s completely different. People drive a lot faster, they don’t indicate. It’s a little bit more like the Wild West out there.”
There may be traffic mayhem around her but Palmer says the car is often a sanctuary from her busy life as a mother of four.
“When you’re a mother and you’ve always got your kids with you it’s nice to have some alone time in the car listening to a podcast — and they’re usually not appropriate for children because I like true crime.”
Her current favourite is The Australian’s Teacher’s Pet series. “It’s so riveting,” she says.