Silence Witness in class
Emilia plans to quit the small screen to be a teacher
EMILIA Fox fancies swapping her acting career for a lead role in the classroom – as a teacher.
The Silent Witness star had been keen to work in education before her showbiz career took off. “My plan A at university was to use my English degree to become a writer or teacher,” says Emilia, 45, who recently starred in BBC drama The Trial Of Christine Keeler.
“I loved reading books and writing, so I thought
something would come of that,” she explains. However, she is part of the Fox acting dynasty – her father Edward, brother Freddie, uncle James and cousins Jack, Laurence and Lydia are all performers.
And everything changed when she was offered the part of Georgiana Darcy in the 1995 BBC drama Pride And Prejudice.
Emilia recalls: “I didn’t want to do the same thing as my family, so acting was my plan Z.
“Then Pride and Prejudice took me down a path I wasn’t expecting.
“I hope to go back to plan A at some point.”
Emilia has a £1.3million house in an expensive area of west London, and would have to take a drastic cut in pay as a teacher. She earns up to £250,000 a year for Silent Witness plus more for other TV work, such as Sky One’s Delicious. But a new teacher in inner London starts on £24,000-30,000.
Emilia is reportedly engaged to talent agent Luc Chaudhary. She was previously married to actor Jared Harris, and had a daughter Rose, now nine, with actor Jeremy Gilley, and was engaged to comedian Vic Reeves and dated chef Marco Pierre White.