‘My Life Is Happy Chaos'

Emilia Fox talks to Nathalie Whittle about the joy of gardening in her pyjamas, being ready for romance – and why she’s feeling her fittest and most fabulous in her forties.

- Nathalie Whittle

With her glossy hair and perfectly manicured nails, you might be fooled into believing Emilia Fox, 44, is an actress who demands the red-carpet treatment wherever she goes. Think again. It’s 7am when she arrives at the w&h cover shoot, make-up-free, wet hair scraped back into a ponytail, having agreed to squeeze it in before a busy day of filming for the new season (and her 15th) of Silent Witness. The filming location? A rubbish dump on the outskirts of the city – and believe it or not, it doesn’t faze her one bit. “The worst place I’ve filmed?” she says. “In front of a men’s urinal – we had such a laugh!” It’s that down-to-earth attitude that surely makes her one of the most likeable women on television.

Emilia was born into acting royalty: her parents are Joanna David and Edward Fox, and her uncle, three cousins and brother are in the industry, too. But it’s clear that Emilia has carved out a name for herself irrespective of her family name. Not only does she have another season of Silent Witness coming out, she’s also wrapped on an eight-part thriller, Strangers, set to air this year. It takes place in Hong Kong, and she plays British consulate Sally, who helps a man seeking answers about his wife’s death. And when Emilia isn’t in character? She’s mom to seven-yea-rold Rose, whose father is actor Jeremy Gilley; the couple split when Rose was a baby. This is a woman who does it all.

I never had any burning desire to become an actress. In fact, I did lotsof other jobs before I ever considered it an option; I was a waitress, I worked in a mail-order department, and then in a health-food shop – I tried it all. Then, while studying at Oxford, I got a part in the TV series Pride and Prejudice as Georgiana, Mr Darcy’s sister – and it seemed much nicer than any of those other jobs.