10 Fascinating Facts About Julia Fox, the Breakout Star of Uncut Gems

Though Julia was born in Italy, she and one of her brothers were raised in NYC by her eccentric father, while her mom and her other brother remained in Italy. "My dad is American. He's, like, a seventh generation New Yorker. He's out of his mind. I pretty much grew up with him," she told High Snob Society. "He still lives here, but he's not really around. He's like a mad scientist recluse. He builds 3D printers for fun."

Because her father was often busy with his own projects, Julia was given plenty of freedom to explore the city on her own. "I grew up Uptown, mostly," she continued. "We moved around a lot. It was kind of unstable. We were homeless at one point. I actually have lived in almost every single neighbourhood — Harlem, Chelsea, everywhere. I moved downtown when I was 17 and I haven't left."

Because Julia's father was pretty lenient with rules, she started frequenting clubs at the age of 14, and she even became a part owner and investor of a nightclub at one point. However, by 18, she found herself feeling pretty burnt out by the club scene — especially after suffering a near-fatal overdose at 17. "Growing up in New York, you start going out really young," she explained to Paper. "I was 14 years old in clubs, you know? By the time I was 18, I was tired. It just got boring and repetitive. I already knew what the night would be like — it just wasn't fulfiling to me anymore. It was this really cheap thrill that I had become immune to."

Now at 29, Julia finds that — while she still enjoys going out and socialising — going to clubs is no longer something she enjoys. ". . . I really never go out unless it's an event or I have to," she continued. "I do enjoy myself. Sometimes I really have to push myself to socialise because I can tend to be reclusive and do the isolation thing, but I do love interacting and meeting cool people. I just find that anyone I've ever met at a club never really stayed in my life or impacted me in anyway. It's always been the people I met in the day."

While she's never had film or stage acting experience, Julia did play several different roles when she worked as a dominatrix in high school. Rather than a professional actress, she considers herself an "actress of life." When asked about her performance experience by Paper, Julia said, ". . . I've kind of always put on a show. Or pretended to be normal. Or pretended to be okay when I wasn't. My first experience in acting was probably in high school. My after school job was a dominatrix, so you know, it was fantasy role play."

For her, role playing helped her learn how to improvise and work under pressure. "I was thrown into that as a teenager," she added, "so I'm good under pressure and I can read someone and know what it is that they want. I pick up subtle cues very well and pay attention to detail."

Before filming Uncut Gems, Julia never took a single acting lesson. She even asked Josh Safdie whether she needed some professional training, and he discouraged her from taking lessons. As she explained to Cosmopolitan, "I knew that even if I was doubting myself, the fact that [Josh] believed in me so much kind of made me feel like, Okay, I can do this, because I trust him, trust his opinion and judgement and intuition."

A week before she was cast in Uncut Gems, Julia had just wrapped filming on a short film called Fantasy Girls that she wrote and directed herself. Though Julia wants to continue acting, her dream is to seriously pursue writing, directing, and producing, as she feels that working behind the scenes is a better fit for her. "I have so many scripts," Julia told Refinery29. "It's about fine-tuning, and finding the right team. Even though I do love being in front of the camera, I feel more comfortable behind it. I just want to let my work speak for itself, and not always be the centre of attention."

Julia's talents aren't limited to acting, writing, and directing. Before creating Fantasy Girls and landing her breakout role in Uncut Gems, she tried her hand at everything from fashion to photography to poetry. "In 2012, I had a fashion line with my best friend Briana," she explained to High Snob Society, but by 2015, she found that making clothing wasn't quite fulfiling. ". . . I felt like I had a story to tell that I couldn't tell through high-end women's knitwear," she said.

After ditching the idea of starting a fashion line, Julia transitioned into other mediums. "Around then [is when] I made a pretty smooth transition into the art world," Julia continued. "I did photography. I made two art books. I also wrote poetry. Published some articles. A lot of my work was very self-indulgent, though."

When asked by Refinery29 about women in the industry whom she looks to for inspiration, Julia named Margot Robbie as someone she admires, both as an actress and a producer. "[Margot Robbie] is always someone I reference because she started in Wolf of Wall Street in such a sexy role," Julia explained, "and then did Mary Queen of Scots where she had like boils all over her face. And she produced I, Tonya, and I think it's so cool! Her path is amazing. I just watched Bombshell; she's incredible."

Other women she hopes to emulate include Charlize Theron, Marissa Tomei, and Debi Mazar. ". . . I also love Charlize [Theron], she's such a badass woman," Julia continued. "I love Marissa Tomei, I love Debi Mazar. She and I are probably the most similar because we're both New York club kids, very colourful life, wild child, independent New York girls. I always look to her. If she could do it, I could do it."