Have you ever come across a story where the main character shares so many similarities with you that you start believing that the story was based on your life? Well, that is exactly what happened with Julia Fox when she got to read the script of the Safdie Brothers crime thriller, Uncut Gems.
Starring alongside Adam Sandler, Uncut Gems was Julia Fox’s debut in the film industry for which she received a nomination at the Gotham Awards for Breakthrough Actor. Since Josh and Benny Safdie already knew Julia Fox before casting her in the role, the character shared a ton of similarities with the actress, so much so that she thought the Safdie Brothers were spying on her.
Julia Fox Thought She Was Being Spied On
Considered by many as the best film of Adam Sandler’s career, Uncut Gems revolves around the life of Howard Ratner, a jeweler and a gambling addict. Quite a deadly combination, isn’t it? In the film, Julia Fox plays the role of Julia De Fiore, Ratner’s employee as well as his mistress.
When Fox was first offered the script, she was fully convinced that Josh and Benny Safdie were spying on her because she saw an abnormal number of similarities between her real life and the character of Julia on the page.
As per The Guardian, Fox stated,
“Have you been spying on me? …There were a lot of similarities. Even in the character description, I was kind of like, ‘This is a little familiar. It was pretty spot-on.”
As for what the similarities were, Fox says,
“Being independent, resilient, being a hustler, having a ride-or-die mentality, and overall just being really cute.”
The Safdie brothers were pretty sure about casting Fox in the role, despite the fact that she had never acted before. However, the production of Uncut Gems was going to be much grander than before with Martin Scorsese and Scott Rudin joining the team as producers. Thus, the production wanted a big-name actress like Jennifer Lawrence or Scarlett Johansson to play the character.
Fox recalls,
“They auditioned about 300 girls. I heard Lady Gaga’s name thrown around. I heard Jennifer Lawrence and Scarlett Johansson. I think at one point I even heard Kim Kardashian, though I never asked because I didn’t want to put myself in an uncomfortable position where I would be obsessing over it and doing the compare-and-contrast thing.”
In the end, the stars were able to align just how the Safdie Brothers had hoped they would and it all ended up working in Fox’s favor.
The Similarities Between Julia Fox and Her Character Were Coincidental
Talking to The New York Times, Josh Safdie revealed that the parallels between Fox and her Uncut Gems character were nothing but pure coincidence. Of course, since he and his brother already knew Fox prior to writing the script, there is a good chance that they subconsciously based the character on Fox to some extent.
Safdie stated,
“When she finished [reading the script], Julia asked me if I had been spying on her because she thought that there were so many strange similarities with the character. But she gave me good feedback, so I would call her on a whim when I had writer’s block, and I would ask her for advice. The character was just kind of constantly evolving to become more specific to her.”
Fox’s close friend Briana Andalore also agreed that Julia was an iteration of Fox. She told TNYT, “I don’t know even know how to say it other than, that is her. We’ve had those moments.” It looks like the role was made to be played by Fox, after all.
Uncut Gems is available to stream on Netflix.
