Uncut Gems, a film directed by Josh and Benny Safdie, earned 92% on Rotten Tomatoes and is sitting pretty in the Netflix Top 10 list, according to Business Insider. While the film portrays Adam Sandler and The Weekend, the secret treasure of the film is Julia Fox.
Fox plays the parts of both mistress and employee to Sandler’s character, according to Refinery29 and is, without a doubt, the film’s shining star. The film takes place in Manhattan’s diamond district in 2012, according to The New York Times, and show’s Sandler’s character, Howard Ratner, in hot pursuit of a big payday that inevitably unravels. Fox’s character, who also happens to be named Julia, comes through in a strong way even though she’s not the lead.
The New York Times quotes Miyako Bellizi, the film’s costume designer and a friend of Fox’s, who stresses that the young star was made for the part: “[Fox] is that real New York City girl that this film needed. She deserves a lot of credit for the film, especially the look for it. Everyone’s been asking me about Howard, and it’s like, ‘but what about Julia?'”
So with such an iconic personality, here’s everything we know about Julia Fox, the hidden treasure of Uncut Gems.
Julia Fox painted canvases in her own blood
Julia Fox was born in Italy, but moved to New York, where she was raised in Yorkville, an Upper East Side neighborhood east of the posher Park Avenue,” per The New York Times. Before working in film, Fox had a range of careers. She worked as a clothing designer, running a knitwear brand with Ms. Andalore, per the news outlet.
Fox also worked as a model as well as a painter and an artist. Refinery29 describes Fox as a “fixture of the New York City club scene,” noting that she nearly died of an overdose in her late teens. Death seemed to be on her mind because in 2017, she held the art show, “R.I.P. Julia Fox” curated by Richie Shazam, which featured silk canvases painted with her own blood.
In addition to painting, Fox has published “two books of photography that quickly became cult items on the independent book fairs circuit,” per The New York Times. She’s also an activist and got involved in the 2016 Standing Rock tribe’s protests of the Dakota Access pipeline.
While Fox is clearly talented on every front, she wasn’t always so confident. But she landed one really unusual job that gave her all the training she needed.
Julia Fox — New York's dominatrix
When asked how she got into acting, Julia Fox said she started roleplaying during her dominatrix days. She says she lived with her father in an East Village apartment, but this ended up being so tumultuous that she moved out at 18 with her clothes stuffed into plastic bags, according to The New York Times. After working at an ice cream shop and a shoe store, Fox heard that there was work in an East Village dungeon.
Fox said of the job: “It was fantasy role play. I’d have one minute before a session. They’d give you a piece of paper with the guy’s info. ‘O.K., he wants me to be like his angry mother. Got it. Boom.’ And, you’ve got two seconds to get in that mind-set.”
Fox explained how this gave her the confidence to pursue her dreams: “I went in there insecure and with low self-worth. I didn’t understand my value. I left with too much self-esteem. Nobody was going to ever cross me again.”
This toughness helped Fox complete her first film called Fantasy Girls, which she wrote and directed, about child sex trafficking and kidnapping in Reno, according to Refinery29. While she’s got that amazing project behind her, as well as Uncut Gems, Fox has many more scripts tucked away. So we will definitely be seeing more of this remarkable person!
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