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[0:06] Robert Peterpaul: Hello, beautiful people. Welcome to the Art of Kindness, where we have compassionate conversations with artists from all areas of the entertainment industry who are using their voice to spread joy and make this big spinning planet in the universe a better place to be.

[0:22] Robert Peterpaul: I'm Robert Peterpaul, and I'm so glad you're here.

[0:34] Robert Peterpaul: Hello, you little beacons of light, you! Welcome back to the Art of Kindness, the A-O-K. Today we have on an actor that I have been a fan of for quite some time, and she did not disappoint. I shared our interview time slot with my new podcast, How We Roll, a podcast for actors. So be sure to roll on over to that feed for more of our conversation if you're interested. We're kicking off this Women's History Month with Teresa Palmer.

[1:06] Robert Peterpaul: Teresa Palmer is a globally recognized performer who has been nominated for multiple Best Actress Awards, including Critics' Choice, and many others from her home country, Australia. You'll recognize Teresa from her extensive on-screen work, often alongside some of the most acclaimed talents in the industry. She shared the screen with Cate Blanchett and Christian Bale in Knight of Cups, appeared alongside Andrew Garfield in Mel Gibson's Oscar-nominated film Hacksaw Ridge, with Danielle Radcliffe in December Boys, and Adam Sandler and Keri Russel in Bedtime Stories. I mean, the list goes on.

[1:46] Robert Peterpaul: According to IMDb, some of her other most popular credits are I Am Number Four, Warm Bodies, and one of my favorites, Take Me Home Tonight. More recently, you may have spotted Teresa wielding a sword in the SAG Award-winning blockbuster, The Fall Guy, starring Ryan Gosling, Emily Blunt, and Hannah Waddingham. And that's not even touching on her TV career, which most recently includes leading the cast of the cult hit A Discovery of Witches. Teresa's TV work continues with The Last Anniversary, an adaptation of Liane Moriarty's book, and the show that brought us together here today: Mix Tape).

[2:41] Robert Peterpaul: Teresa recorded this from her home in Australia, where a cyclone was literally about to hit. She cares so much about the arts community, and it's clear that she aims to uplift any other artist that she can. Without further ado, please enjoy the terrific Teresa Palmer.

[3:12] Robert Peterpaul: Hi Teresa, how are you?

[3:15] Teresa Palmer: I'm so good. I'm good. Hi from Byron Bay while I'm waiting out the storm here.

[3:20] Robert Peterpaul: I know. Hello from Connecticut, where I'm not waiting out the storm. I'm waiting out, I guess, bedtime, probably, but I'm sending you lots of good vibes. I hope it's okay over there.

[3:30] Teresa Palmer: Thank you. Yeah, so I'm so excited to have you on The Art of Kindness as someone again that I told you before we started recording here. I've just looked up to for being sort of a light in this industry. I really admire how you seem to use your platform for good, especially with the podcast that you have and, you know, different videos you post and things you share and causes you support. And so I just wanted to start out by saying thank you for being such a good role model because I think we need more of that in this industry.

[3:57] Teresa Palmer: Well, we need kindness, don't we? I'm passionate about being kind. And yeah, so and thank you. This is such a beautiful idea to have a podcast about this.

[4:09] Robert Peterpaul: Oh, thank you. Love you. I appreciate that. It's been a beautiful journey because I feel like I'm not preaching at anybody, but I'm just learning alongside everybody, and it's unique. Everybody has a different definition of kindness, which brings me to Teresa. What is your definition of kindness and how do you think it's changed over the years? Especially given the fact that I feel like you're in this unique position of having to go to all these different places for your job, and you've gotten to see a lot of the world and probably a lot of different kinds of kindness.

[4:38] Teresa Palmer: Definitely. I guess my definition of it is like I try and practice a lot of yes and, and not in the traditional sense of that way. It's like if someone tells a story, you build upon it and you encourage them. And we have this big role in our family: don't be a spirit popper. And so how we define that is like if someone's trying out something and it doesn't maybe it doesn't quite work out the way that I thought it was gonna work out, or they say something a bit embarrassing that kind of puts themselves out there, you build on that and encourage them. That's so cool. That's so funny. Yes, and yes, and rather than being like, what are you doing? Pop in spirit.

[5:22] Teresa Palmer: So, and you see a lot of spirit popping, and it's like if someone suggests a fun idea for a game, you like add to it rather than be like, no, that's dumb, that's awful, that's a bad idea. And I think for me stemmed from childhood, seeing how much in the playground kids' ideas would be cut down, and their thoughts and their beliefs, and if they do something out there, someone will diss them, or just, you know, it's this awful thing that happens like as kids. So I was like, okay, well, I'm gonna teach my kids different. I love this is gonna be the fabric of our family, and I'm gonna let's take that out into the world and just be that way, and then so it's also about just connecting with people. Someone talks to you, you give them the time of day, you look them in the eye, you smile, you have warmth and openness and make them feel seen and heard, and like that is kindness to me.

[6:25] Robert Peterpaul: That's so beautiful. We need more of that, I think, to build this kind of world, and you're reminding me, you know, I was struck by this moment in New York City once I was leaving Penn Station, and there was this adorable little girl like twirling on the stairs, and of course, all the people behind her were huffing because it's that go, go, go city mentality, and whoever was with her yelled at her, and it was like the saddest moment, you know, nobody's perfect, and I don't judge anybody. It's sort of what you were saying, it's like that popping, and even in a scene as an actor, you can't go anywhere without that yes and, you know, you're not gonna have a scene. So I love that.

[6:59] Teresa Palmer: A hundred percent. So I try and live my life by those values, and then it bleeds into the work as well. Well, looking back kind of at the work as you got your start in the industry here, I'm sure there were a lot, Teresa, but I'm wondering: is there one act of kindness that you feel like stands out to you as having changed your trajectory and gotten you where you are today?

[7:20] Teresa Palmer: Um, yeah, there's I mean, there are so many on every job. But I think it might go back to my first big American job, which was a movie called Take Me Home Tonight.

[7:38] Robert Peterpaul: Literally, you're probably gonna it's like one of my favorite movies.

[7:41] Teresa Palmer: What?

[7:42] Robert Peterpaul: I have the DVD. It's like such a comfort movie for me.

[7:45] Teresa Palmer: You, Anna Faris.

[7:47] Robert Peterpaul: Yeah, I love them.

[7:51] Teresa Palmer: Yep. Tofer gave me so much on that movie, but one of the things that he gave me because I was so nervous because I was doing an American accent, I was very, very new to the industry. I didn't really know what I was doing. And he was like, just try and you've been cast because of you. So just try and put your own essence into this character. Just be the American version of Tez. And then all you have to be like is how am I playing this in the most natural way possible? How can I just make it feel like a real person? And he's like, usually you're just playing versions of yourself. And I was like, really? Oh.

[8:38] Teresa Palmer: So I took that. He told me that on day three. I took that, and I have held on to that my entire career. And it got me through that job and my insecurities, and I just kept saying, all right, be a normal person. You're representing real. Like, how do I just fold that into the work that I'm doing? And then I've learned that on every single job, I infuse my essence into the character, and it makes it feel so much more grounded. And it was such an amazing piece of advice, but it was also generous and kind. He didn't have to do that.

[9:14] Robert Peterpaul: Yeah, I love that so much. And I imagine from just having researched you, which by the way, I mean I knew you were Australian eventually, but I thought you were American at first. So you're acting a great job with the accent. But I imagine it must have been complicated at first to have that come into your sort of actor toolkit because, like me, I know you were sort of how you were brought up, acting became a love of yours because of escapism. And so that's something I really relate to. And I imagine with this beautiful new TV series that I got to watch the first two episodes of, which was such a treat, Mix Tape), you know, music is sort of used as an escape in a big way as part of that story. So it, I mean, I'm guessing here, but is that something that kind of attracted you to the role of Alison? That like escapism aspect?

[9:57] Teresa Palmer: Yeah, I think it's escapism, it's also nostalgia. I grew up listening to mixtapes, making mixtapes, burning CDs.

[10:09] Teresa Palmer: Oh, yeah. Uh and songs and music, it was just so important to me growing up, and I've actually found that in some ways I've lost a little bit of my connection with music. I think it was so important to me when I was younger. And then I started having my kids, and then in the car, I'm driving around listening to kids' stories, or I'm listening to podcasts a lot more now, so that my playlist still looked like and you have a great one. Everyone should subscribe. The Mother Days podcast. There we go. But I now am so much more about podcasts. So that when I play a playlist for my kids in the car, it's all my old school music from when I was 15, 16, 17. And so reading the script and having all these songs that I grew up listening to peppered throughout the show.

[11:11] Teresa Palmer: Yeah. Uh it was just gorgeous. We didn't have that access that we have now, like through social media and everything, and all the distractions. Line music was the biggest thing. Yeah. We had like LimeWire on the DL. I don't know if you had LimeWire where you're like downloading clips. I mean, I didn't have that one. I think I didn't have. Yeah, no, I never had that. But you've been a part of projects that have like really iconic music scenes. So this mixtape series made sense to me. Like you had Sorcerer's Apprentice with that big like, what is it, secrets uh song moment.

[11:45] Teresa Palmer: Yeah. Like a lot of you're probably taking me home tonight. A lot of them have been really like fueled by music. And so I I think it's a good conversation to have on the art of kindness because to me, music and kindness, art and kindness, it's sort of like that intersection where we sit at. And I I just wonder thinking about that power here. I was trying to think of a question, and it kind of came down to is there one specific song that no matter what, if it comes up on that playlist, it's always like giving you the feels, just takes you back.

[12:14] Teresa Palmer: Yeah. Um, okay. So there's this track called Six Underground by Sneaker Pimff. Oh. It's gonna be new for me. Okay. Oh my god, this song. I think it might even be from the late 90s. But it was, you know, one of my big transformative years was um the year 2000. I was 14. I was coming into this new friendship group. I was just like really starting to lean into who I actually was as a human being. Um, and that became like the anthem of the year 2000 for me, and then also bled into the following year.

[12:58] Teresa Palmer: And when I look at my playlist, it's still the song that I played the most. It'll pop up and my kids love the song now, and we play it all the time. You'll know it when you play it. It's a good it was like on the soundtrack of the Saint, the Val Kilmer movie, like back in the day. Yeah. Okay, I'm gonna know this. Everybody pause this right now, listen to it, come back. Well then it's okay. I know. Or you'll introduce someone to a great new song.

[13:27] Teresa Palmer: You know, I I wonder as part of the process for this series, was there a lot of music involved sort of behind the scenes? Like is that sort of your process as an actor anyway, but were you all like jamming out between takes? I mean, it's just the soundtrack's all so great, but so is the chemistry. So I wonder how that like fueled it.

[13:44] Teresa Palmer: Well, we uh so Jim Sturgis, who plays the older Daniel and I, he actually swapped uh playlists. So he did a mixtape for Allison and I, and I did a mixtape for Dan. That's okay. Um so there are lots of tracks. Like he had a lot of Fleetwood Matt, Peter Gabriel, Bat for Lashes, uh Richard Hawley, Elbow, like some really cool tracks, and then we actually discovered in sharing our playlist with each other that he's really into like underground, 90s, the vintage pop as well.

[14:27] Teresa Palmer: And so am I. And so we started like sending tracks to each other. Like I was obsessed, I'm obsessed with Big L as an artist, like he's a rapper who's no longer with us. Um, and like Master Ace and Kerry S1 and Gangstar and Mob Deep, and he loves all those tracks too. So then it kind of became this thing where he would send me songs, I would send him songs, and sometimes they were appropriate for the show, but other times it was just about leaning into this idea of making mixtapes for people.

[15:00] Teresa Palmer: So it was cool. It felt very old school. Yeah, that's so beautiful and fun, and kind of like a great acting exercise, but I'm sure Bond did y'all too. Because like, what about better way to become friends than sort of like swap tracks, as you're saying?

[15:14] Teresa Palmer: He's got really, I mean, he's a musician himself, but he's got unbelievable taste in music. Music's a lot more important to him, I think, than it is to me. Um, so I was I felt like, oh, I'm probably letting down like my end here. I've just been getting a hip-hop, and he's got all these amazing, interesting songs I've never even heard of, artists I've never even heard of before, but he's definitely got his finger on the pulse in terms of the music.

[15:42] Teresa Palmer: Oh, that's awesome. That's a that's a great match. You need somebody that's gonna kind of like share something new, and then someone that can receive it. So it's more exciting that way. He had a band himself called King Curious, which is so cool. So he's making albums and selling them, which is really dope.

[15:57] Robert Peterpaul: Wow. Oh, I mean, I'm sure that's why he's such a great fit in this show, which everybody needs to go check out. In addition to mixtape, you've worked obviously with Jim, you've worked with some of the biggest kind of names in the business. And spoiler alert, they're all just people. But for listeners, it's very exciting that you've worked with like Ryan Gosling recently, Emily Blunt. I mean, is there is there someone in this industry when I look at kindness that you that you really feel like has navigated it in a graceful way, and sort of you were struck by their huge platform, but their equal kindness and just the way they treated people.

[16:29] Teresa Palmer: Well, so I didn't have very many scenes with Emily. Emily I remember that. Such a good movie, and congratulations, by the way, because that was quite the buzz. Thank you. But she has always just been, whenever I've seen her at the different award shows, she's just always been open and warm and generous, gorgeous and supportive. She's that way. But I have to say, because I've spent more time with Ryan on The Fall Guy, Ryan Gosling.

[16:57] Teresa Palmer: I always tell people that to me is the truest definition of what a movie star should be. He is the perfect movie star in that obviously he's brilliant at what he does, he's really funny, he's really on top of his work, he knows all his lines, he's fantastic at ad libbing. He can just flow in unscripted humor left, right, and center. That of itself, watching that, is like I'm watching a master at work.

[17:26] Teresa Palmer: But the best thing about Ryan is he is the most encouraging, he exudes kindness, he's so warm. He just took the time out every day to connect with people and be open. And he loves his family so much. He was gushing so much about his family and his kids. And he's just beautiful as a human being. And it makes me feel really good that he's at the top of the game. And so then he gets to set the tone for all the other movie stars to like step up to the plate in that way.

[18:05] Teresa Palmer: He is so generous. And I have worked with other big movie stars before, where there's a certain level of so awe-inspiring. People feel intimidated by them. They're at arm's length. They don't interact with people in the way that Ryan does. So I I've always said like that to me is just a class act being that way. And he deserves his movie stardom.

[18:35] Robert Peterpaul: Yeah. I love that so much. We need more of that. And again, I thank you for for doing that. And I think that's probably a reason why you've worked for so long and had so many amazing credits, is I'm guessing you're wonderful to work with. And I know we gotta jump here, but I'm wondering if you could just end our time together by sharing a tangible kindness tip. So something you would like listeners out there to do on their own corner, just to take action and make the world a little bit kinder.

[19:02] Teresa Palmer: What we say with our kids is every day do something kind for a person. And I it's been really beautiful watching how my children do it. And one of the things that they've been doing is when we walk down the street, they'll say to someone, Good morning, have a great day, um, have a good afternoon. And Ethan, and even do you need help with that? Um, and I'm noticing it in my kids, and it's the most beautiful thing. Of every day, how do you connect with someone who you wouldn't necessarily connect with, a stranger down the street, but you don't usually talk to just a smile and a good morning and have a great day, whatever that is.

[19:44] Teresa Palmer: Um, that's kindness. That is so fun. You could kind of make that a game. It's like, can I get a smile back or not? I mean, sometimes you gotta feel it out if it's safe to do it, you know what I mean. But I love that so much. Everybody, everybody play that game. Thank you so much, Teresa. It's such a joy to speak with you.

[19:58] Teresa Palmer: Yeah, you too.

[20:01] Robert Peterpaul: Until next time, remember, everything is gonna be a okay.