A Discovery of Witches has already made its second season available through streaming services Sundance Now and Shudder earlier this year, but now AMC viewers will be able to watch the fantasy series on television starting June 27. Based on the All Souls trilogy by Deborah Harkness, the show follows Diana (Teresa Palmer, Warm Bodies) as she takes control of her witch powers.
In the second season, Diana and her vampire beloved Matthew (Matthew Goode, Downton Abbey) have traveled to London in 1590 in order to obtain the Book of Life. They confronted with danger at every turn, some of it coming from Matthew's own past, while at the same time Diana works to grow into her magic and find her magic.
Palmer spoke to Screen Rant about the moments that mattered most to Diana in season 3, and the proudest aspects of her journey over the course of all three seasons. If you have yet to watch the second season, be warned some minor spoilers are ahead.
Diana gets to not only travel through time to 1590 in season 2, but also travel around within 1590. What was that like for you as an actress to explore your same character from S1 but in an AU setting?
Teresa Palmer: I think when I first signed on to do the series, everyone was talking about how the second book was set in Elizabethan London. I've always been interested in doing a period pace, so I was very excited to be propelled back to that time.
But it is a delicate dance for Diana because she's a modern woman in 1590, so she has to figure out ways to blend in. Yet she's also a historian and a total nerd when it comes to meeting these historical characters.
She's inside a swinging pendulum of emotion and excitement, but she understands that this time is very different for women - especially witches. There's danger lurking beneath the surface amongst all that excitement. She's completely enthralled by the world, but it quickly shifts into her being quite isolated. Because she's a fish out of water in a different time.
Diana and Matthew's relationship is also tested this season, thanks in large part to his past becoming their present. How do these trials affect their bond and yet strengthen them over the course of the season?
Teresa Palmer: Yeah, I think that when she first lands in Elizabethan London, she's getting these subtle warnings from her friends that the Matthew she knows is not the Matthew of this time. I think it's very arresting initially to feel this physical pull away when he retreats into the darkness of this old Matthew.
She has really embraced all the wonderful new ways in which she's grown as a witch, so she's very powerful. I don't think she's physically afraid of him, but what really triggers her deepest fears is that there's such an emotional and mental distance from him that she's really desperate to rebuild with him.
But I love that she actually accepts the situation for what it is, and she just dives into doing her work; into finding her sisterhood and her coven. She gives him the space to do what he needs to do to blend back in, and to also heal a lot of old wounds that have come up for him by time traveling back to his old self.
I love that Diana gets to carve out her own space too. Can you talk about how she grows this season, not just as a person but as a witch coming into powers and her coven?
Teresa Palmer: Yeah, I love that about her. She's so focused on the task at hand. They know that they came back for three main reasons: they're hiding out in time, they're pursuing the Book of Life, and she's personally gone there to find a teacher that can deepen her connection with magic and understand it a little bit more.
So, I love that she makes a point of shifting out of all the big feelings she's having surrounding being so isolated and feeling so far apart from Matthew, and she just deep dives into developing her magic. She finds that wonderful group of women, who she feels so supported and held by. I think that, in Diana's life, she hasn't had that sense of home in a really long time. She's always been running away from her authentic self, and she hasn't had a safe place to land. In the coven, she finally feels like she's landed somewhere safely.
I love that you see her blossom in the ways she's able to harness the new magic that she's learning, like the knots and her role as a weaver. I just love that aspect of it. Those scenes in a coven are my favorite to shoot.
Magic is such an important part of Diana's development, and I know you had a magic teacher for the physical aspect of the spells. What is that process of learning knots like for you?
Teresa Palmer: Well, they were very specific, because she's learning knots. I worked with my magic teacher, who's a choreographer. We would sit together and would look at different formations of knots, and we would come up what our notes look like.
In just the same way Diana had to learn her knots, I had to learn my knots. Because on the day, there's no guide; there are no strings or lights for me to follow. I have to remember the path of my knots. It was like I was having this parallel existence with Diana; we were together in this journey of learning the specific choreography of the knots. So, it was wonderful. Even the scenes where I'm practicing them, I really would be off screen when we weren't filming, practicing the knot of eight, the knot of nine. And they get more intricate and delicate with each knot, too.
I loved that process; it was really amazing. And my kids would practice it with me at home. I'd say, "Mommy's gonna practice her knots now," and we'd all practice together. But my seven-year-old still knows the first three knots. He's like, "Mom, look! I know my knots." It's very sweet.
Speaking of family, Diana doesn't get to spend as much time with her aunts this season, but she does reconnect with another part of her family. Can you talk about her complicated feelings about blood family, and how they evolve in season 2?
Teresa Palmer: Family has always been a really tricky thing for Diana. I think there's a lot of trauma surrounding the concept of family and how that looks, because her parents died horrific deaths when she was a young child. She has conflicting feelings about families because of her experiences, but she has really been raised by her aunties. She has this wonderful deep love for them, but these gaping wounds surrounding her own parents, their demise and their experiences during their lifetime.
There's this beautiful moment in season 2 where she gets this opportunity to be with her dad again. It's everything that she's wanted, and everything that hurts so deeply and profoundly. I loved exploring that with her. It was a delicate dance, because she's so emotional but also longing for a deep connection, and she knows that he can be of service and helpful to her.
I love her evolution with family, and her reaction to seeing her father again for the first time in a long time, I think it's very healing and therapeutic.
Season 3 is coming soon, although the rest of us haven't seen it. For you, when you look back on all three seasons of this complete trilogy, what aspect of Diana's journey are you proudest of or most fascinated by?
Teresa Palmer: I'm proudest of her leaning into her true self. I think our human experience is getting to know ourselves better and better; embracing those aspects of ourselves that sometimes feel uncomfortable or vulnerable. But I personally love that kind of self-work, and to see her come into her own as a woman, and then as a mother and as a witch and a partner - and just a friend. I love that.
I think when we first meet Diana, she's so lost, because she's running away from her most authentic self. And then over the course of the three seasons, you just see her fully embody every aspect of who she is. That would be my proudest moment for her. That's the thing that gets me most excited about seeing her journey on screen.
The television encore of A Discovery of Witches' second season premieres June 27 at 7pm ET on AMC.
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June 26, 2021 at 12:06AM
