Julia Fox on How She Landed ‘Uncut Gems’ Role as an Unknown When Studios Originally Wanted Scarlett Johansson, Other “Established” Stars
Julia Fox is name-dropping another star who was almost cast in her role of Julia De Fiore in Uncut Gems.
In a Wednesday appearance on the Jay Shetty Podcast, Fox shared how she landed the role in Benny Safdie and Josh Safdie’s 2019 directed thriller starring Adam Sandler.
“People knew who I was. I was like a hood celebrity, and these directors heard about me and wanted to meet me. They were writing a part for this young girl who has kind of a sugar daddy situation. And that movie would go on to become Uncut Gems,” she said. “I auditioned like everyone else. Unfortunately, even though they had written it for me, the studios were like, ‘We don’t know her.’ They wanted like Scarlett Johansson and all these other beautiful women and established actresses.”
However, Fox went on to describe what the turning point was, “At the time I didn’t even know if I could actually act act, but I had a hunch. I did a screen test with Adam Sandler, and it went really well and they were able to convince the studios to let me do it.”
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Previously, Fox had heard they met with Lady Gaga, Kim Kardashian and Jennifer Lawrence for her role before casting her.
Fox played Sandler’s love interest, who is also financially supported by him. Before Fox began acting, she said, “Everybody knew I was living off of my sugar daddy’s money,” and she was “looked at as the spectacle.”
Since then, her acting credits have included No Sudden Move, Presence, Fantasmas and more.
Up next for Safdie brother, Josh, is the sports drama film Marty Supreme starring Timothée Chalamet, which is slated to be released on Christmas. Meanwhile, Fox’s next role is in Justin Tipping’s horror football movie Him.
