Emilia Fox

My grandmother, Angela, was the Fox family matriarch. She was magnetic but also wicked. She had this huge life force and was great fun, but she would play each member of the family off against each other, which could make for extremely dramatic Christmases.

People think of me as a privileged young girl born to wear a chiffon party dress. I was born into a big acting family, and although I absolutely adore them, it's taken me time to work out how or where I feel comfortable.

I remember once in junior high school, on a Friday, my mom came home from work and said to my brother and I, 'You know, between us, we have only 27 cents, but we have food in the refrigerator, we have our little garden out back, and we're happy, so we are rich.'