okay I may be stretching a little into parasocial territory here (trying to keep it in check, but those with hyperfixations know how much they can take over your brain)
But I just feel so inherently sad about how Nicola Bryant was treated during her time on Who. First sheβs forced to keep up the act that sheβs American for the entire time that sheβs on the show. The agent who put her up for the part told her to audition with an American accent but that if she got it then he would explain it to them. He never did, so there she is on her first major acting role right out of drama school in her early twenties having to keep up this American accent not just on the show but also behind the scenes and in any promotional work like tv appearances and conventions etc. Then she was also forced by JNT to pretend she was single even though she was at the time married. Thereβs the infamous comments about Peri existing solely as βsomething for the dadsβ hence her skimpy outfits (obviously this isnβt just peri unfortunately but she is I would say one of the major examples of this). This also ties into the attitudes behind the scenes where Nicola describes having βconstant commentsβ about her appearance, including JNT insisting that she bring βthe tightest outfits she hasβ to the first photocall.
Then we get to the whole Caves of Androzani filming mess that I already made a post on a few weeks ago but to sum up they left Nicola (who is also asthmatic just to note) filming outdoors in freezing cold temperatures in a very skimpy costume that lead to her getting pneumonia, plus being in flimsy sandals lead to her developing frostbite on her feet. She was also supposed to take time off to recover yet was back in work the following Monday.
Once she left Who and was finally able to drop the American accent at least, she was let go by various projects and blacklisted because sheβd βlied to themβ. The accent thing wasnβt even her fault or doing, the fact sheβd had to keep that up even in a lot of her personal life stuff for so long and then got penalised for it when sheβd only just started building her career is so sad.
(Quick disclaimer! This is based on info picked up from watching a lot of interviews and con panels etc. so like, donβt sue if any of this is incorrect Iβm just repeating what Iβve read)
watching the in conversation s22 collection interview with her + this information always makes me really sad but also greatly admire her for the fact that she's shown so much love to the show to this day and has found peace in her life. nicola wanted to give so much to peri especially since it was her first big role and the fact she wrote up a whole background of what peri was like and it sort of just got ignored by JNT is really disheartening. there were so many things about the behind the scenes in the interview that shocked me, bless nicola for being able to open up about it and remain so collected through it all. i don't ever want to speak for her but seriously she deserved so so so much better
