‘I didn't want to be AN ACTRESS'

She’s part of an acting dynasty but Emilia Fox wasn’t keen to follow in her family’s footsteps when she was younger

- HAYLEY MINN

Emilia Fox is part of one of the UK’s most famous families of actors, as the granddaughter of Robin Fox, daughter of Edward Fox and Joanna David, sister of Freddie Fox, and cousin of Laurence and Jack Fox. And while she’s now a successful actor in her own right, having starred as Dr Nikki Alexander in Silent Witness since 2004, 45-year-old Emilia explains that the plan was never to enter the family business.

‘When I was growing up I wanted to do anything but be an actress,’ she says. ‘I didn’t want to do the same thing as my family had done successfully, so I sort of shied away from it and went to university. My parents were actually very keen on me staying in university and I’m really grateful they encouraged me to do my degree because that’s nice to have now.’

But in fact it was while Emilia was studying English at the University of Oxford that she got her big break. She explains that she got a ‘holiday job by default’ as Georgiana Darcy in the BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice. Inevitably it was suggested she got an agent, who landed her the role of the Second Mrs de Winter in a TV miniseries of Rebecca, and the rest is history.

Emilia enthuses, ‘It happened by default but I’m really glad it did because I caught the bug and it’s a lovely job to be doing.’