Emilia Fox was surprised to learn that she comes from a family of actors.
Emilia Fox comes from a family of actors and actresses
The 48-year-old actress comes from a thespian family - which includes her mother Joanna and actor Edward - but Emilia was shocked to discover that many previous generations of her family were also performers.
Emilia - who made the discovery on the BBC show 'Who Do You Think You Are?' - shared: "I discovered that not only in this generation, but in my parents' generation there were actors and in the next and previous there were more actors.
"I found that my great-great-grandfather worked his way up from the factory floor in Leeds and became an entrepreneur and his great passion was the arts and he collected arts and made a donation to the Royal College of Music. So I thought, 'Maybe it is in the blood.'"
Emilia has already enjoyed a lot of success during her own career, starring in a host of hit movies and TV shows.
But Emilia insists that she never actually planned to become an actress.
The 'Dorian Gray' star - who is the cousin of actor Laurence Fox - told OK! magazine: "People say, 'Is it in the blood that you have all gone into the same business?' For years I said, 'No. Absolutely not.' I did not want to be an actor.
"I did try to stay clear of acting as I grew up. I went to Oxford University, so my mum and dad did not nurture me into becoming an actor. They were like, 'Do anything but!'"
Emilia wasn't even aware that her parents were actors "until much later".
The actress - whose brother, Freddie Fox, is also an actor - recalled: "They did not expose to me their acting life as a child and their feeling about parenting was to try to give stability to us and not take us out of school. I was not really aware of what they did until much later."
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