Diana Bishop has got magic to do.
“I would get lost in watching [Sheila],” Palmer tells EW.
But just how did they bring this magic to life (besides with clever visual effects)?
Credit: Simon Ridgway/Bad Wolf Productions/Sundance Now
Surprisingly, it was really grounded in Palmer’s own work with her body.
Palmer found Diana’s magic through her collaboration with movement coach Sarah Perry.
“I call her my magic coach,” quips Palmer.
I learned a series of knots.
It’s become a dance.
“It was absolutely organic and intuitive,” she adds.
“I got to choose where I would pull a thread from.
I disappeared into my imagination and I could see the thread.
I really felt like I could see these little shimmers.
They said it was like if you could imagine spiderwebs going through the grass and the sunlight hits them.
It’s really tiny, thin, and delicate and intricate.
So in my head, I had to represent the delicacy of those threads.”
Palmer herself is someone attuned to the natural world.
She co-founded a website calledYour Zen Mama, which approaches pregnancy and parenthood from a holistic perspective.
“I am connected to the elements myself,” she explains.
“And Sarah, my movement coach, she’s really in touch with her spiritual side.
Those discoveries ended up carrying over into Palmer’s entire performance, not just her magical sequences.
Do we ever turn our back to her?
Do we exit the room, facing her and then turn around at the last minute?”
But I am contemporary Diana going back into that world.
Probably I had an easier job than those who actually had to play characters from 1590."
A Discovery of Witchesstreams on Saturdays on Sundance Now, Shudder, and AMC+.
