Actress Plans On Making Writing & Directing Debut With The Film
While she’s only been in handful of Hollywood films to date, it’s undeniable that Teresa Palmer is an actress bound for big things. Still in the early bloom of her career, Palmer’s presence hasn’t gone unnoticed by studio types. Last month she starred in “I Am Number Four” while last summer she appeared in “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” and this weekend finds her taking a totally different sort of role in the comedy “Take Me Home Tonight.” She auditioned for “The Amazing Spider-Man” and she was circling George Miller‘s “Mad Max: Fury Road” until production delays on that film killed her potential involvement And while enticing projects continue to cross her desk, Palmer is ready to take her career by the reins, with big plans to write and direct.
“I’m really passionate about all facets of filmmaking. I love the idea of sitting down and writing a script,” Palmer told us recently and she’s not kidding around. Late last year, the Daily Telegraph reported that Palmer was hard at work writing a feature length film she also planned to direct. The actress spoke to us further about the film, titled “Track Town,” revealing that it was borne out of lack of interesting roles coming her way and that it’s touching upon some very different movies for its inspiration.
“My producing partner Tahyna Tozzi and I, we decided we really needed to write ourselves some good material because we were reading a lot of stuff we weren’t connecting with,” Palmer told us about how the film first came together. And that spirit of striking out on their own seems to have found its way into the project Palmer and Tozzi have penned.
“I’m just so passionate about that role. It’s basically a road movie — it’s the ‘The Wackness‘ meets ‘Thelma & Louise‘ — and it takes place in Australia in the mid-90s, in Adelaide, and it delves into the hip hop culture. [It’s about] two girls and they have to deal with the ramifications of their actions when they accidentally kill a seventeen-year-old boy. It’s a pretty dark film, but there’s humor in there as well.”
Sounds very exciting and just the kind of rich, complex material any young actress would like to take on. And while it’s not quite ready to go in front of cameras tomorrow, the project is well on its way. “We’re in very early stages on that film. We’ve written the first draft and we’re just taking meetings now and we hope it shoot it in South Australia in the next year or so.”
Palmer added that she’s very inspired by the Blue Tongue film collective — made up of a bevy of talent including Joel Edgerton, Kieran Darcy-Smith, Nash Edgerton, Luke Doolan, David Michôd and Spencer Susser — and who have brought forward such fare as “The Square” and “Animal Kingdom” and she hopes she can dip into that pool to help get her film off the ground. “I think we’ll probably go out to Joel Edgerton first. He’s so busy now that I don’t know if he’ll have time to do our film,” Palmer said about possible roles in the film.
Poised to become a triple threat, the next year or so should be a very interesting and intriguing one for Palmer that should find new opportunities opening up as she heads down the path to direct. “Take Me Home Tonight” is in theaters now and stay tuned this weekend for more from our interview.
