Emilia Fox interview

Silent Witness star Emilia Fox turns to the big screen for new British rom-com Cashback

Daughter to Edward Fox and wife to Jared Harris, Emilia Fox may well be the link between two of England's finest acting dynasties. But the Silent Witness star is not above playing a supermarket cashier, as she does in new British rom-com Cashback.

How would you describe Cashback?

It's sweet and it's gentle - a good date movie! It's a romantic love story rather than a change your life kinda thing. It's got a good mixture of stuff for the boys and stuff for the girls.

You play a cashier who becomes the fantasy for a male colleague - and you end up pole dancing in one of his daydreams. Did you take lessons?

Yeah. I had a lot of pole dancing lessons, and hung out with the pole dancers, and went to the clubs and bars in Soho and the East End - gentleman's venues. Sometimes you get asked to do something in a film that will change a little bit of your life. It has for me. Actually, it really changed my view. Every woman should go and see a pole dance or go and do a striptease lesson. You realise how sexy women can be if they are confident about their bodies, and if they're made to feel they can use them. I'd say I did the strip tease as much for myself as much as I did for the film - or maybe for Jared!

Talking of Jared, how does it work between you two - as he's based in LA and you've just shot another season of Silent Witness over here?

Being apart keeps marriage very fresh and very alive, and you look forward to seeing each other so much. But, yeah, it can be tough. It's long periods of time where you're living separate lives. It's been fine while I'm working and doing this, because your mind is so preoccupied with it. And if I wasn't then I would be with him - and he does fly over whenever he can.

Did you ever think that when you got married, you were uniting two of the most illustrious families in British acting?

We didn't really think of it in those terms, but I didn't really know Richard [Harris, Jared's father]. I find that very sad. He was such a huge part of all of their lives. I only know him through the stories. But then the stories are what means he's still around. There are more people who come up to me and go, 'I had one night with Richard Harris where this happened...' And you're like, 'Wow! That's incredible.'

Cashback opens on 9 May