WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Season 2 of A Discovery of Witches, streaming now on Sundance Now, Shudder and AMC+
For two seasons, Teresa Palmer has brought Diana Bishop, a witch whose magic seems to know no bounds, to radiant life on A Discovery of Witches. And in Season 2, Diana discovered new sides of herself as she magically traveled to Elizabethan London with her vampire partner, Matthew De Clermont. Palmer thrillingly depicted Diana's growth into a woman to be reckoned with as she pursued the mysterious Book of Life, learned to harness her vast power and deepened her relationship with Matthew.
In an exclusive interview with CBR, Palmer looked back on her character's journey in Season 2 of A Discovery of Witches, shared some behind-the-scenes secrets and revealed what she's especially looking forward to fans seeing in the series' upcoming third and final season.
CBR: Diana has evolved a lot in a very short amount of time in Season 2. What have you appreciated most about playing her?
Teresa Palmer: Yeah, Diana has been on quite the journey over a very short period of time. Well, look, I definitely gravitate to a strong female character, and she's the strongest. She's fierce, but she's also really vulnerable and open and flawed and layered and complex. And I love all the colors of who she is because, to me, that's real life. You can be strong, but you can also be scared. And you can be brave, and you can also be fearful. So I love that she can be all those things and they can coexist within her. So that's really wonderful.
And then just watching her on her evolution on this journey of Diana finally accepting and embracing and loving this aspect of her life that is witchcraft and being a witch, she's really stepped into her authentic self. And I think when those things are married -- finally embracing this aspect of her life -- actually her magic is stronger, and it breathes off of this energy coming from her that is enthusiastic now about being a witch after spending so many years rebelling [against] this side of her life. But I love that. I think it's a brilliant dynamic, and it's a really interesting path that she's on.
Diana and Matthew have a mature, adult relationship. What has it been like for you and Matthew Goode to work together to construct that relationship over the past couple of seasons?
I think we see in Season 1, Diana and Matthew are in almost that honeymoon stage where it's passionate and sexy and they're all consumed with one another. And then Season 2, the reality really kicks in that their choices have ramifications, and it's not just going to be butterflies and sunshine because they suddenly are in this relationship that's really complicated. And Diana suddenly finds herself very isolated being now in Elizabethan London, a time that she's only ever read about and studied and fallen in love with. But the reality of being there is very different from any of the books she's read. It's a scary time to be a woman, and to be a witch back in those days, in particular, was very [risky] and she's putting herself in a lot of danger. So it's an interesting dynamic for them, romantically. There's a bit of separation between them, and isolation, and there's conflict that they have to deal with.
And I think Matthew [Goode] and I, we've both been married. We both have three kids -- well, I'm about to have a fourth kid -- but we understand the complexities of marriage and relationships. And in marriage, it's always peaks and valleys, and so that felt quite real to us, to be able to portray that on-screen. It's not just always going to be easy-going for this couple. It's going to be very tumultuous. And actually, it brings us closer together, [to] deal with riding those waves together, and even if we fight, it doesn't mean there's any love lost, it means we're being more revealing to each other. And that is true intimacy.
As you mentioned, in Season 2, Diana really comes into her own as a witch. And the spell-casting looks very physical. How were those moves conceived, and how did you ensure they worked with the visual effects?
Well, I actually had a magic teacher. Her name is [movement coach] Sarah [Perry], my magic teacher. And she is so just wonderful, and really connected to her body. So we talked about grounding Diana in her body. Like, where's the magic coming from? What parts of her body? What do her body parts do when she's conjuring up magic? Where is she feeling it? Is it in her solar plexus? Is it in her tummy? Is it in her heart, her mind, in her fingertips? Is there a buzzing sensation? What does it feel like? So we actually broke it down physically so I could really understand what's happening to me physically.
And then, all the moves were choreographed. So especially the knots. So [Diana] obviously has 10 knots that she's working on. So we actually used handouts and certain movements. But I will forever know all my knots, I could do them right now. I know one through 10. And the more delicate and intricate and complex they get, the more exciting it was to act them out. And I get to use my knots a lot in Season 3 as well. So it was wonderful. And I had to practice my knots the same way Diana had to practice her knots. So in between takes, I'd be going back to my trailer, and I'd [practice], "With knot of six, this spell I fix. With knot of eight, the spell will wait." I would be sitting there doing them over and over. And they look beautiful on camera. I love the movement on camera. So it really worked, and it was all because of this wonderful teacher that I had.
Because of this season's period setting you wore some really lovely costumes, but they looked like they could be challenging to wear. What was your experience with them?
Yeah, they definitely were challenging at times. I certainly felt really excited when I got to Season 3 and I was wearing contemporary clothes again. But they were so beautiful. I felt as though I was wearing art pieces. And really, they were. The attention to detail was so beautiful, and the craft was so honed, and the delicacy of the beading. And it was all handmade and stitched together. These girls, our costume girls -- it was a little gang of them -- they would stay up nights on end, piecing them all together, and oftentimes, just from a sketch that [A Discovery of Witches novel author] Deborah Harkness would send them: "Oh, I love this for the wedding dress," or, "I love this for her dress when she meets Queen Elizabeth, her historical hero, for the first time. This is what she should wear." And just so much time and effort were put into the making of these gorgeous gowns.
It was hard because I was breastfeeding -- I had a little newborn at the time, who's now two -- and she, even back then -- not much has changed -- but even back then, she was obsessed with breastfeeding, on demand, all the time. So we had to be very specific with the costumes. I needed to have a front-opening corset, otherwise the lace corset took too long to get my breast out. So I had these popped buttons all the way down the front. And we had a system down, my dresser, Alex, and I, we got it down to a good 30 to 45 seconds, we could get a boob out to [her daughter] Poet. So we just had our system. She started crying. She needed it. We'd unpop all the things that we needed to. And it was great, having to work with the costume girls with that. I really am so proud of them because it's not easy. Those costumes are so challenging to make, and to also lug around and carry. [They'd] be carrying them from set to set. But then having to work with an actress who was breastfeeding was also another challenge for them, but I'm really appreciative of the effort that went into ensuring that my little babe could still feed on demand as much as she needed to.
This season Diana meets both Matthew's father, Philippe, and reunites with her own father, Stephen, who she hasn't seen since she was a child, and Diana had some poignant moments with both of them. What were the highlights of playing those scenes with both men for you?
I think with Stephen, Diana meeting her father again, it was a really bittersweet time for her, engaging with him and interacting with him. And she so desperately wanted to change everything because she knows that, looking into the future, she understands what happens to him and what his fate is. And so it's incredibly painful. In some ways, it's reopening old wounds. But also, there's a healing taking place, and those things can coexist. And I love that. I think it's such a colorful experience for her to be back with him again. And he was her first love, and there's so much there between them, which is so beautiful to see on-screen.
And then, of course, Philippe, it's a really challenging dynamic. I think [there's] also been a real tension surrounding Philippe and Matthew De Clermont for many, many years. And Matthew holds a lot of things close to his chest and he isn't always as open [and] revealing as Diana wants him to be. So, actually, getting to delve into this aspect of his life and revisiting the trauma that he has experienced with his father brings Diana and Matthew so much closer together. I also feel that she ends up really respecting Philippe and she does a bit of a 180. I think when she first meets him, she feels very protective of Matthew, and then ultimately starts to understand their relationship a bit more. And he tests Diana. I mean, he really tests her to the point where her life's in danger, but she really holds firm in who she is and her love for Matthew and really earns his respect. So I loved playing that. And obviously, [James] Purefoy is an amazing actor, and him and Matthew Goode have been up to all sorts of shenanigans over the years together so they've got a really fantastic relationship and it was great to see them laughing and having banter on set. And getting to be folded into that mix was really, really nice.
Season 3 is already filming. What are you most excited about audiences seeing next season?
Oh, gosh. So much. Diana is a mother. That just opens up a whole other side of Diana and Matthew and their relationship. And also, there's a real humanity there. […] So many people who have had children will understand just being in the trenches with your partner when you have a newborn. But then it's so heightened -- Diana and Matthew -- because they're also still trying to pursue Ashmole 782 and dealing with all the chaos and the danger that they are facing. So it's a really interesting relationship, I think. It's funny to watch someone who is a first-time mother, […] she has to sort of oscillate between being a mother and just trying to learn how to do things like breastfeed her baby and comfort her baby, but then also being the world's most powerful witch and defending those who she loves. So I love that. It's a complex situation that she finds herself in.
And I just like giving birth in Season 3. I mean, I'm obsessed with all things birth as it is, and it was really nice to bring a lot of my birth knowledge into Season 3, to be able to work with the writers to find the kind of birth that I felt like Diana would have wanted and really advocate to see that kind of birth on-screen. So I'm excited for that too. I don't think you see birth done in this way so much when we watch birth on the screen. So I really was a strong advocate for showing this sort of birth. And birth positions and how she navigates it and how she takes control. And yeah, I'm really excited about it. I hope that people get something out of it.
Is there anything else you can tease about what's coming up for Diana and Matthew as their journey comes to an end in Season 3?
Well, look, everything is heightened, the danger is real. Diana's faced with some extremely nefarious characters that we have met previously in other seasons, and those characters have also strengthened their magic, so there's some pretty epic showdowns. She gets to use her knots in the most remarkable of ways.
A Discovery of Witches Season 2 stars Teresa Palmer, Matthew Goode, Alex Kingston, Valarie Pettiford, Lindsay Duncan, Edward Bluemel, Aiysha Hart, Daniel Ezra, Aisling Loftus, Trevor Eve, Owen Teale, Malin Buska, Gregg Chillin, Tom Hughes, James Purefoy, Steven Cree and Adelle Leonce. Seasons 1 and 2 are now streaming on Sundance Now, Shudder and AMC+.