With a new TV show premiering next month, and more music and movies on the horizon, the provocateur is laughing at the naysayers all the way to the bank.
It’s 5:30 p.m. on a Thursday and Julia Fox is still on the clock. After speaking with more than a dozen journalists to promote her new E! competition series, OMG Fashion, it’s just us two (her publicist has punched out for the day), face to face in a midtown hotel suite about to spend an hour gossiping about style, work ethic, and the business of being a celebrity.
Fox, 34, intimidates some people—like the older white men gawking at and whispering about her as we walk across the lobby before our interview. Today, her eyebrows are bleached and she’s wearing a pantless Sho Konishi suit with Briana Andalore shoes made out of hair extensions. “They hate us here,” she tells me with a smile, coyly smirking (and scoffing) at men nearby as the lyrics to her song “Down the Drain”—“I’m a bitch, I’m a girl, I’m a mother, I’m a whore”—reverberate from her iPhone at full blast.
Despite her flair for provocation, Fox’s demeanor is gentle. The personality of a teddy bear…but make it fashion. She has the innate ability to make you feel like the most important person in the room, even if that person is actually her. Being mother to her 3-year-old son, Valentino, has likely contributed.
I compliment her sense of calm; how it’s surprising to learn a headline-making performance artist like herself is humble—not to mention self-aware and very ready to hit the sack after a long work day. “Really? Oh, thank you,” Fox says earnestly. After all, doesn’t she have the option of hopping to a school night after-party to do lines of illegal substances? Isn’t that what Hollywood people do?
“I’ve been around. I did all of it. I was the party girl. I was the fucking crack head. I was out all the time. I was homeless,” she says, referencing her trajectory from NYC nightlife staple to legitimate entrepreneurial boss. “Now that I do have that stability and that safe space, that's where I want to be—home. I'm done. I'm done. I paid my dues. I got my street cred. I'm ready to stay home.”
Born in Milan and raised in NYC, Fox was thrust into the spotlight thanks to her breakout role as Adam Sandler’s girlfriend in 2019’s Uncut Gems. And then because of her brief relationship with Kanye West. Plus one avant-garde look after outlandish look after shocking look. In addition to a burgeoning music career and forthcoming acting gigs, OMG Fashun (on which she’s also an executive producer) marks an exciting new chapter for Fox, one where she’s holding court in her figurative C-suite office.
Co-hosted by legendary stylist Law Roach, the eight-episode series (premiering May 6, Met Gala Monday) is campy and consumable as candy. It’s a playful reality project reminiscent of Project Runway and RuPaul’s Drag Race in which rising designers upcycle sustainable fashion in hopes of winning a $10,000 cash prize, plus the opportunity for Fox to wear their creations. That Roach—the brain behind every viral Zendaya look and one of today’s most in-demand image makers—agreed to collaborate speaks volumes about her perception among fashion’s elite.
“She’s fucking fearless,” Roach says of Fox’s approach to fashion, describing her enviable knack for identifying new, obscure, and emerging designers who’ll inevitably blow up. When I quote a message Fox told me Roach shared with her in confidence—”I don’t say this to a lot of people, but I really fuck with what you’re doing”—he laughs and says, “It’s absolutely true. I can be a cunt sometimes, but I will give people their flowers when they’re well deserved. With Julia, it’s well deserved.” Roach adds, “She’s doing a really good job of making a moment into a lifetime, and that’s because she’s authentically who she is.”
Sure, Fox is a performer, but this isn’t all an act. It’s just Julia—the bitch, the girl, the businesswoman, the mother who has to get home to put her son to bed. What she has to say (delivered in her signature uptalk) about being all of those things, below.
InStyle: When we booked you for this shoot, the gays at the office agreed you’re iconic—obviously.
Julia Fox: It's so funny. Whenever I'm around a cisgender heterosexual man, I get so disoriented. I'm like, Oh. Because I just never… I'm always around gay men, or queer people. Whenever I'm just around normies, I feel the difference in the energy. I start to feel a little uncomfortable, too. Because we're different! We have a different language. We're aliens, or they're aliens actually. I feel like we're normal and they’re aliens.
InStyle: Facts. So, let’s get into it. How would you describe your job?
JF: I feel like I'm just always working, whether it's domestic labor or this kind of stuff. Now I get those people that'll be like, “I saw so-and-so on the street and I asked for a photo and they said no.” I remember reading that before I was in this position, being like, What a dick. What does it cost them to just take a photo? But now I get it. It's like, dude, this person probably is so overwhelmed—just their nervous system is so fucking shot, and they just need to breathe, center themselves, and then you want a fucking photo and then they've got to smile and chat with you, and you're their mom's favorite actor, and you're their… It's a lot. That's all I'll say. Anyone that's wanting to enter this sphere, just be prepared because your life will never be the same again.
InStyle: That's so ominous.
JF: It's true though.
InStyle: There are certain marquee events that put you in the news cycle. However, people often wonder, What's her thing?
JF: I know. It's hard to decide. It's everything. I want to do everything. I want to write more books, I want to write movies. I still want to act, I want to do my fashion stuff. I want to do more art. I want to have more art shows again, I want to put out more art books. I am an ADHD/autistic cusp. So, for me, it's like the grass is always greener, what I'm doing is never enough, there has to be more. I'm never satisfied. I want to do everything, but also I want to do nothing at all. I hate commitment; I don't want to commit to one thing. I want to be able to dabble.
Because it's like, I don't know if it's the fear of, Well, if I only commit to this and then it doesn't go well… At least now I can be like, Well, if this doesn't go well, I have this, this, and this I can fall back on. A lot of it, I think, is from the trauma of financial insecurity.
I feel like it's never too late. I feel like your thing can be not having a thing, or having more than one thing.
InStyle: During our photoshoot, you said being in the entertainment industry is exhausting, referencing your whirlwind trip to L.A. running from Elton John’s annual Oscar party to the Vanity Fair party, then to a music video shoot with Charli XCX the next morning. What’s the point? Why do it if you’re tired?
JF: I'm the type of person where it's like, I have to make the most of that moment. I didn't come all the way here to not fucking kill it. Because yeah, it sucks, but the feeling of not having slayed is even worse. You know what I mean? It's like a double-edged sword. I don't know, I can't explain it. But I also do have this pressure to prove myself, because I feel like I'm always surrounded by naysayers that are always just underestimating me or not taking me seriously. So, sometimes I just want to pop out and be like, “I'm here. I'm here and I'm not leaving.”
InStyle: What's it like to brush shoulders in a room full of celebrities behind closed doors?
JF: I feel like when I meet celebrities that are very established in their career, they're always so lovely, so nice. I met Emma Stone at SNL, and she told me she read my book and, literally, I had to leave the room for a second because I was like, I just saw you win an Oscar two weeks ago. What?
Then there are the girls that are not at that level, and they’re always a little more cuntier, because I guess they’re not really secure in their positions, and they’re a little more threatened maybe. But the girls that are like, Honey, you will never top this, they’re always really nice.
InStyle: You mentioned naysayers. I think it’s interesting that the audio version of your book went viral on TikTok for reasons both good and bad. Many people trolled your commentary and mocked you. Does that hurt?
JF: No, I love it. I love it. I think it's so funny because I have a painful level of self-awareness, believe it or not. I just choose to be this way, but I know that it's crazy. I know the sound bites were crazy. As I was doing the voiceover, I was like, Oh my God, this is crazy. I love that people can have fun with the content I'm putting out into the world. I feel like that's the point: You don't want it to just begin and end with you. You want it to live on in the world and in people's minds. And ultimately, I'm always trying to laugh and I'm always trying to just make people laugh. And if I can make strangers laugh on the internet, I feel like my job is done.
InStyle: Recently, Cardi B said, “No matter what I accomplish, I still get called a stripper.” I'm curious if you have a way that people perceive you that doesn't go away.
JF: I mean, I think we all know what it is. Dating that man for a month—one month. [Fox is referring to Kanye West.] And that's why I have such a sour taste in my mouth about dating anyone in this sphere. Because I don't ever want to just be known as someone's girlfriend. I know I'm so much more than that. And I feel like that happens so much to women in this industry. They're only as good as their partner or they can make a whole career off being some guy's partner. But regardless, either way, it becomes their identity. And I feel like I have to transcend that, and I want to break that mold, and I want to just stand on my own two feet and not need a man to back me. I did that for years. I'm good. I have established myself, and I want to keep establishing myself. And maybe one day I'll even be taken seriously.
InStyle: Your apartment tour went viral on TikTok, and it was empowering because of its realness. Do you still live there?
JF: No, that was in the East Village. I'd lived there for quite a while, actually. And I was just really comfortable there. People were like, “Oh my God, she's poor.” And I was like, Okay, first of all, slow down. It's a good apartment for East Village standards. If you knew the location, you'd be like, “Prime real estate!” But actually, after that whole thing went viral, I was like, Okay, maybe I should move. I don't know, something set in. I actually did end up finding a place [in Harlem] that really spoke to me, and me and my best friend bought it together.
That was a huge milestone for me because I remember when I was dating this really rich guy, and then we broke up, everyone was like, “He could have bought you a house. You didn't even get a house.” And I remember being like, “I'm going to buy my own house.” But in the back of my mind, I was like, No, I'm not. Who am I kidding? So when I did it, I just felt really like, “Huh! See! I did it, after all!”
InStyle: That's a huge deal. To buy property in New York City is iconic.
JF: It really is. It is so freaking impossible and so hard. And I really feel for our generation because it's so not cool what these people are doing to us.
InStyle: How does your new place compare?
JF: Well, it's a home. It's a townhouse, so it's a proper home. And it's not downtown, and it's in an area where it's really all New Yorkers. So no one really gives a shit about me at all and leaves me alone, which is really nice.
InStyle: Let’s chat about fame. Do you ever Google yourself?
JF: No. Not at all. I don't. The thought of even Googling myself gives me so much anxiety because it's always going to be some bullshit and then I'm so reactive and I'm just so rowdy that I'll repost it. Like, “You call this journalism?” It's better if I just don't look at it because then it's shots fired—now I have to retaliate… What you don't know can't hurt you. Ignorance is bliss. I don't know what's going on over there.
InStyle: When it comes to the business of influencing culture, are there certain types of projects that you would absolutely turn down?
JF: I really, really do try to maintain a moral code. There are just some companies I will not work with because then I feel like it just undermines all the other work I do, or directly contradicts it. Obviously, sometimes I'd be stupid to turn down the check, and I actually do need to support myself and my kid. But it depends. I try to be graceful about it and not sell my soul out too much because I think it's important. I think when people are like, “These celebrities sold their soul,” it's not like they went to a convention and signed a piece of paper. It was gradual. They started doing shit that meant nothing to them. That's the selling of the soul. It's cosigning shit that… Just becoming a mannequin of yourself is selling your soul.
InStyle: I’ve certainly interviewed celebrities for sponsored partnerships and you can tell the person just wants—
JF: To die. It's dehumanizing. Justice for celebrities. What the fuck?
InStyle: The concept of fame has evolved so much, especially with social media.
JF: One thing that changed when I became famous was I'd always just been a troll commenter. I would just comment stupid, funny stuff. And then I remember, Oh my God, I'm getting in trouble for my troll comments. People are reposting it and making TikTok videos. They're like, “[Julia’s] insensitive! [Julia doesn’t] care about this!” Dude, I was just kidding. So that was another thing, just being held to an insanely high standard where I have to be this Mother Teresa person. No, I'm just a troll like you. It's just funny. L-O-L. I like to like problematic posts because it's funny to me, but now I can't. So that was another thing, just feeling like, Oh my God, I have to be perfect all the time now.
InStyle: Did you fall into fame or did fame find you?
JF: Well, I think fame found me because of Uncut Gems. But even before that, I was a hood celebrity. People always knew me and I was always around. But I think that had to do with the fact that I was just really crazy and rowdy and I had a fat ass and guys really liked me. And I would smoke blunts with the guys. I would get into fights with people. I was just known for being a terror. So it was more like an infamy.
InStyle: Let’s talk about OMG Fashion. You’re an executive producer. Was that a non-negotiable, and what does that job entail?
JF: Definitely. The whole concept of the show was born because of me and what I was doing. I was doing the upcycling videos that would go viral. I was finding talent. It wasn't like the show was created, and then they needed a host and they just found me. No, I've been there since conception. I helped pitch and sell this show. I was at all the meetings. I came up with all the challenges. My heart and soul is in this. So I think it just wouldn't have been ethical if they didn't extend that credit because there's so much of my DNA in this show.
InStyle: Respectfully, the idea of you in a boardroom is so funny to me. It’s hard to imagine! Your fans and naysayers may not realize how much work goes into creating, producing, and hosting a show.
JF: You have to sell it. You have to be a marketing master. I think being in this position, you really need to know how to market yourself.
InStyle: You and Law Roach have such a fantastic on-camera dynamic.
JF: Yeah, I just love Law so much. I feel like on the surface, I was just so intimidated by Law because I was like, This is the fashion God, I'm not even worthy. How did [he] even agree to do this? This is a fluke. This is crazy. And also, when Uncut Gems came out and we were looking for a stylist, I asked Law to style me, or I had my people reach out to Law, and Law was too busy. So I was just like, Oh, I’ve already been rejected once by Law, but I'm going to try. And when the production company was like, “Make a wish list of your co-hosts,” I put Law first. But I was like, I'm just aiming high. The list will start at the moon and then trickle down to what feels more like it could actually happen.
InStyle: To pivot, your fans are excited about your new music and what’s to come.
JF: I hope so.
InStyle: Why didn’t you pursue a music career sooner?
JF: It was always what I wanted to do. And then I remember I told my mom one day and she laughed at me and was like, “Julia, music is a hobby. It's not a profession. You're not going to be a rock star.” Because I told her I wanted to be a rock star in particular. That's what I said. And then I remember just at the time… maybe I didn't realize the impact it had on me, but the fact that I can remember it 30 years later definitely had an impact on me. I was like, Okay, yeah, maybe it is a hobby. And I just moved on, forgot about it. And I think I was doing the book tour and I was like, Well, I'll have an audience already, so maybe just kill two birds with one stone. Really give them a show.
And then I did the song with Ben [Draghi], who literally lives in our house. So I just went upstairs with him in his little studio. We wrote the lyrics in 10 minutes. He had already been working on a beat. We reworked it a little bit. I was like, “I want the hook to sound like this. I want da, da, da, da, da.” And then I would just sing it. We probably did it in two hours, I want to say. I mean, he would say it took much longer, but the spine of it was done in a very short time. And then he made it sound like a bop.
Then, I performed it. Charlie XCX somehow heard it, and then she asked me to perform it. And it was funny. She was like, “Babe, we want to play your song at the Boiler Room.” And I thought she meant my song. So I was like, “Oh, ‘Stiletto Pumps’ by Crime Mob. Yeah! Tell the DJ to play it.” And then she was like, “No, babe, like, your song.” And I was like, “Oh my God, I forgot I have a song. Yes, okay, I will perform.”
InStyle: Please explain your lyrics to “Down the Drain”: “I'm a bitch, I'm a mother, I'm a whore.” What the fuck? I am obsessed.
JF: Dude, it just came to me. It just came to me. You know that song, who is it? Is it Shania Twain? No. Who's that? [Editor’s note: Fox starts singing the lyrics to Meredith Brooks’s “Bitch”]
I wanted to write the current version of that, or something. The lyrics just, they just came.
InStyle: It's just so camp, and it makes me think, Can I write a song?
JF: Yeah, it’s so easy! And also most lyrics of most songs are dumb. It's fine. It needs to sound good and rhyme. Those are the only prerequisites.
InStyle: Would you ever tour your own music, or open for an artist?
JF: I mean, touring with a small child and everything… only if I could bring him or maybe incorporate him. I would honestly probably have to be like, “Okay, here's the tambourine and we just need to go out and do shit together.” Because I don't want to leave him behind and this is my life. I have to find a way to incorporate him because I hate being away from him. It just stresses me out. So I have to teach him how to play the tambourine.
InStyle: It would be a cute mom and son act on the road. On the topic of motherhood, many people don't see you mothering. What's a typical schedule like for you? Because being a parent, I presume, is insane.
JF: It's insane. And I don't have a nanny, so I do everything: the drop-off, the pickup, the lunches, the feeding, the shower, the bath, all of it, the doctor's appointments, the play dates. I'm doing most of it. Obviously, I'm lucky that my family is here in New York, all the grandparents, the aunts, the uncles. So if I have to go do something, it's very easy for me to call upon somebody. And they're all very eager to take care of him because he's just the sweetest, most fun little ray of light.
InStyle: If you didn't have the multiple jobs that you have, what path would you have pursued? Would you ever have a corporate job?
JF: I always say I would've probably gone into social work. I think something like that would've been my cup of tea. It would either be therapy, social work, something, but working along with children, helping children.
InStyle: We’ve covered so many bases. Is there anything else you think is important to mention or that you want from this interview?
JF: Not really. I feel like we talked… but also my mind's such a blur right now. I'm like, What did we talk about? We talked about the movie I'm doing, right?
InStyle: No.
JF: GOAT? Yeah, I'm leaving next week to shoot GOAT. It's from Monkeypaw Productions. Jordan Peele's producing it. Justin Tipping's directing it. And I play the female lead as Marlon Wayans’s wife. It’s a weird dystopian psychological horror thriller loosely based on the NFL with a lot of metaphors that are reflective of what it really is in reality, because you know how Jordan Peele things are? There's always a lot of hidden messages that if you get it, you get it, you pick up on it, you pick up on it. And that's my first real studio film that's a non indie.
InStyle: Major!
JF: Yeah, I'm so excited to finally be stepping out of the indie world. But I love indie, so I'll be back, of course. I'm excited to do more acting. I have been acting more, actually. I just want to balance it. I don't want to be just a reality TV girly. Obviously it's not reality TV, but it is unscripted, a competition show, and I just don't want to be pigeonholed as a TV personality. I don't think that's what I am.
InStyle: Acting feels so organic with what you’ve done.
JF: It's so fun. It's honestly therapeutic for me. I crave it. I crave to just pop out and be someone else for however many… And I get into it. I remember when I first started acting, I was so self-conscious. I'd be second guessing everything I did, and now it just feels so like, I'm here. I'm ready. I'm dominating.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
E!’s OMG Fashun premieres Monday, May 6th at 9:30 p.m. ET/PT with two back-to-back half-hour episodes. Weekly episodes will then air at 9:00 p.m. ET and 9:30 p.m. PT.
Credits
- Photographer:
- Rosaline Shahnavaz
- Cinematographer:
- Jon Cortizo
- Stylist:
- Kevin Huynh
- Makeup Artist:
- Marco Campos
- Hair Stylist:
- Lacy Redway
- Nails:
- Arlene Hinckson
- AC:
- Kyle Bedell
- Fashion Assistant:
- Joe Gonzalez