The cover interview
She’s gone from a runaway and dominatrix to a buzzy breakout actor, fashion FROW regular, viral trendsetter – and now, a debut author. Julia Fox lays bare her many, many lives…
I’ve just noticed a big line of drool on my top,’ Julia Fox says, looking down at her black hoodie with a jewelled United States flag stamped on the front… and, yes, there’s a silvery line of dog spit to complement her blue jeans and denim Telfar Uggs. She overslept and just managed to walk her St Bernard before we met, on an early morning in Manhattan. ‘Well, whatcha gonna do,’ she shrugs. Well, what she’s been doing is a pretty brutal promo circuit – national daytime television appearances and newspaper profiles, on top of New York Fashion Week, ad campaigns and brand deals. And she’s just finished putting her weird, whirlwind, vibe-shifting life down on paper, with the release of her memoir, Down The Drain. We’re chatting today in a hidden nook off the studio where she’s about to shoot her first Cosmopolitan cover.
‘I’m an artist in the role of a lifetime… me,’ Julia writes in the candid, heart-on-sleeve look into a life where almost every move could create a headline or spawn a meme. A life, I quickly learn from reading, that has a history of abusive relationships, overdoses, arrests, hospitalisations and the tragic 2019 death of a friend that propelled her out of substance abuse. It’s the story of a woman fighting to reclaim her narrative.
The extent of Julia’s evolving fame and explosion into public consciousness varies depending on who you’re talking to. For many, she’s a viral icon, a newsfeed staple for what she’s said, worn or done that day. But for others? They might only know her for her very brief, media-mania-sparking relationship with Kanye West (something she describes as ‘the least interesting thing about me’), or for her breakout role in 2019’s Uncut Gems alongside Adam Sandler. Then there are those three sprawling syllables that ricocheted constantly around the internet’s collective mind for about a year… ‘Uncah Gahmz’.
However you may be aware of her, it’s clear that while Julia may say she never chased celebrity, fame was always going to find her. Her years have seen her live many different lives. She’s been a party girl, an underground scene kid, a dominatrix, a sugar baby, a fashion designer, a model, a provocative artist (who once staged her own funeral), an actor, producer, podcaster, single mum, soon-to-be host of fashion design competition OMG Fashun (from the team behind Queer Eye) and now author. It’s not easy to neatly sum up her life and career so far, and that’s part of her magic.
Booked and busy
With so
