Obviously, she spent her childhhod there up through the time she left to attend school in London. And she seems to have gone from almost from school directly to Doctor Who. She may have vactioned in America or spent time there with her then husband and his family. Was it long enough to pick up an accent? I'm just curious about how she aquired dual citizenship since both sets of grandparents as well as many aunts and uncles are from that village (and presumably both parents) Its possible one grandparent was a Yank. Or maybe she spun a bit a hyperbole since she was playing an American.What would she know!!!!I knew I had this... I just went through my old copies of The Whovian Times, a tabloid fanzine published by the Doctor Who Fan Club of America back in the days before the Web. The back page of Vol. 12/13, a double issue from 1985, has an interview with Nicola Bryant, in which she says:
I'd call that more authoritative than Wikipedia.
ETA: Though her bio on her official website makes no mention of an American connection.
curiousier and curiouserNicola Bryant said:I grew up in a small Surrey village just outside Guildford. My parents, Sheila and Denis had two daughters. I came along first and then three years later, my little sister Tracy arrived. Both sets of grandparents and many aunts and uncles all lived in the same village. It was a great way to grow up. It gave both my sister and I such freedom. Only once you reached your teens did the cosiness start to feel a little claustrophobic but that's all a part of growing up.
I don't see any inconsistency. "Grew up" refers to her childhood and adolescence, not her entire life. And just because she spent most of her time there while growing up doesn't mean she never left it.
Also, in the Whovian Times interview, she was specifically responding to a question about her nationality and how American she was. In her website, she's just talking in broad terms about her formative years. They're different subjects, so she emphasizes different aspects of her history. Nothing strange about that.
I've sent her an e-mail.