Exclusive: Mix Tape’s Teresa Palmer on new challenges, new chapters and baby number 5

A Discovery of Witches star Teresa Palmer has been working in Hollywood for 20 years after her breakout in 2005’s Wolf Creek.

Now, at the age of 39, the Australian actress has settled her family in Byron Bay with her husband, Mark Webber, and their children – Teresa is pregnant with their fifth – and she’s discovering the balance between motherhood and career.

“I had this massive, exciting opportunity in America, but it meant moving for six months to America,” she tells HELLO! “But I realized that keeping my kids in school and getting to drive down the road to work is what I should be saying yes to and that’s what I did.”

As well as an actor and mother, Teresa is a successful podcaster, hosting The Mother Daze with best friend Sarah Wright Olsen, 41, the wife of NCIS: LA star Eric Christian Olsen.

“We had parallel experiences with miscarriages and pregnancies and so we’ve ridden the peaks and valleys of this journey together,” Teresa says of her relationship with Sarah, calling it “serendipitous” to be pregnant together at the same time.

“We’ve weathered these storms together, and now we get to have these celebrations together.”

Teresa was most recently seen in BBC drama Mix Tape, alongside Jim Sturgess. A four-part series, it follows Daniel (Jim) and Alison (Teresa), teenage lovers who use music from their past to reconnect while handling the modern-day reality living on opposite sides of the world.

What drew you to the role of Alison in Mix Tape?

Teresa: Alison is unlike any other character I’ve ever played before in my life. She internalizes her pain, is very thoughtful and observant, but she’s also a complete shape shifter. 

She’s navigated an immense amount of trauma in her childhood, and when we meet her, she’s  a fractured little bird whose wings have been clipped. It is really nuanced this character, and I loved that, because oftentimes the trauma is very overt, but with this character it’s bubbling under the surface.

She might seem like she’s kicking goals – she’s a writer, and she’s having success, and she’s married to this successful doctor, and they live in a mansion in Mossman, a very fancy suburb in Sydney – but under the surface, there are a million cracks.

The soundtrack is just amazing. Did it bring back memories from your childhood?

Teresa: I actually discovered a lot of that music later on in my life because I was a child of the 1990s, so all my music taste came from then. 

I was very into all the pop music – Spice Girls and Hanson and Backstreet Boys and 5ive – and I was a massive Michael Jackson fan. As I got older and started to really explore music,  I ventured back into 1980s music and 1970s and 1960s. 

We were lucky enough with Mix Tape to have really set aside a very healthy budget for the soundtrack, because the music is like another character in this show.

If you could go back in time, is there any advice you’d give to your younger self?

Teresa: Life is not as big a deal as you think it is. 

I think it’s very easy to catastrophize when you’re a teenager. I really took everything to heart and I was very impressionable, so I would just go back to young Teresa and say, ‘All your dreams, everything you’ve always wanted, they’re going to come to fruition,’ and give myself the self-confidence to show up as who I authentically was, rather than trying to fit in and and changing aspects of myself.

Do you feel like your approach to what jobs you say yes to has changed over time?

Teresa: I still chase things that have a high caliber level of people involved, whether it be the actors or the creators, or if the script is really compelling. However, working means 60 hours a week when I film, and that means not being there for every school pick up and drop off, and also it often means that we are a traveling circus.

Now that my kids are getting older, and they’re established with their friends and sports teams, I need to curate those choices a bit more.

For instance, this year I had this massive, exciting opportunity in America, but it meant moving for six months to America, and then I had this other fantastic opportunity an hour away from my house, and even though I was so excited about this US opportunity, I realized that keeping my kids in school and getting to drive down the road to work is what I should be saying yes to and that’s what I did.

What was the opportunity in America?

Teresa: I don’t think I’m allowed to say but it was a crossroads, and I showed up for what my truth is, and that is wanting to be a present mom, not wanting to keep pulling my kids out of school for six months at a time. 

I got both my dreams: I am mother to many kids and I get to be in this industry, but it does mean difficult choices.

It’s really hard to juggle work and home life.

Teresa: And then to feel confident in your choice. I would never have let that opportunity go when I was younger, but now I’m in a place where my priorities are my family.

My career is so exciting and something I love so much, and I couldn’t do one without the other. I show up more in my career because of this fulfilled family life that I have, and I love showing my kids you can have both things.

It took me a long time to get here though, because the wisdom in being the age I am now is just presence and gratitude for my life, and when I sit in that place lots of other doors open up too.

Congratulations on your pregnancy, this is your fifth child but you have a step-child too, how do you feel about becoming a mum again?

Teresa: Collectively, it’s our sixth but my fifth, but my number has always been six. I’ve told the world since I was a little girl, ‘I’m going to have six kids,’ so it feels great.

I’m 39-years-old, so I’m officially in my first geriatric pregnancy, but this feels like this is my natural state, and I’m filled with gratitude because I had a loss last year, and so to be pregnant with a healthy baby is the greatest blessing.  

I’m in my third trimester, and I’m counting down those weeks, thinking about labor, and gearing up to have a little newborn in the house again.

You’re very close to your podcast co-host Sarah Wright Olsen, who just had a baby, it must be nice to be going through that together.

Teresa: And we had parallel experiences with miscarriages and pregnancies and so we’ve ridden the peaks and valleys of this journey together, and it felt really serendipitous. 

This is why I surprised her on the podcast with my pregnancy news, because I knew how meaningful it would be to her because we’ve weathered these storms together, and now we get to have these celebrations together.

My only regret is that we’re in two completely different countries, and I haven’t met Ocean yet and I’m not going to meet her until the end of the year when I’ll have my baby, and it will just be so sweet to come together.

You’re celebrating your 40th next year. How does it feel to be on the verge of a new decade?

Teresa: It is exciting, and having moved to a new place in Australia, a lot of things are coming full circle, which feels really good. 

I’m excited for my 40s. Most of my friends are in their 40s already, so I feel I will be having the best decade of my life. I feel the closest to myself that I ever have been, and growing older and wiser and leaning into the acting process is exciting to me.

Does being married to an actor make it easier to navigate the industry?

Teresa: We totally understand the demands and the disappointments and the highs, so we are each other’s biggest supporters. He’s doing some really prolific work, and developing a show right now, and we root for each other. 

Historically, you’ve heard of a number of couples in the film industry that don’t go the distance because of the demands of the job, but we’ve always been able to have a really healthy perspective. 

We have a rule about being with each other: we can’t go longer than three weeks from each other so we make it so that we can see each other, even if it’s just for a weekend, and really nourish our relationship.