Julia Fox on Mother's Day, mental health and that Charli XCX lyric

Julia Fox is everywhere. So much so that her friend Charli XCX name dropped her on her new single, “360,” with the line “I’m everywhere/ I’m so Julia.”

Fox, 34, delved into music herself earlier this month with the release of her own song, “Down the Drain,” named after her 2023 memoir. The New York Times bestseller discussed her early life in Italy and New York, her experiences with managing mental health and her starring role in the 2019 A24 film “Uncut Gems” with Adam Sandler, as well as the time period in which she was seen dating Ye, the artist formerly known as Kanye West, in 2022.

Fox now co-hosts fashion competition show “OMG Fashun” with stylist Law Roach — all while balancing parenting her 3-year-old son, Valentino, too.

Amid the chaos, the star finally had a moment to herself on Mother’s Day, Fox tells TODAY.com.

“My dad came and picked up Valentino and took him out so I could have a nap,” she says with a laugh.

And by 10 a.m. on Monday, May 13, Fox was at Studio 1A wearing an outfit made out of upcycled sneakers, where she sat down with TODAY.com to chat about her transition into music, motherhood and more.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

How did you spend Mother's Day after napping?

My friends came over and cooked dinner. It was the best meal I’ve ever had in my life. I’m not exaggerating.

My friend made a soy, paprika and lemon-glazed salmon, with corn, but like, Mexican street corn style corn. So good. And string beans like the ones they have at (New York City Thai restaurant) Lovely Day and coconut rice.

And then for dessert one of my other friends brought me cupcakes and banana pudding from Magnolia Bakery, and then my other friend made merengue. Do you know pavlova, with the berries and the cream? She made that too. It was like... coma.

You took a cute video of your son saying he wanted to go “Down the Drain.” Has he heard your new song?

I swear I didn’t coach him, he did that on his own. He said, “Mommy, I want to go down there,” and I was like, “What? Down where?” He was like, “Down there.” I was like, “Down the drain?” He was like, “Yeah! I need to go!” I was like, OK, I don’t know if this is good or bad.

Yeah, he’s definitely heard the song. He’s so over it. He’s like, “Turn it off.” But yeah, he’s really supportive. He always says I look pretty. He always says, “Oh, that’s cool,” about everything. It’s really cute.

You just released your first single, which features the lyrics, “I’m a b----/ I’m a girl/ I’m a mother/ I’m a whore.” How did you come up with this line?

I’m not kidding, me and my friend Ben (Draghi) made the song in under an hour while my son was napping. Ben lives with me, so I just went up to his studio.

I knew I was going to have an audience because I was on my book tour. And I was like, “Wouldn’t it be so cool if I performed a song on one of my stops?” I feel the overall message of the book is you can change — you can do whatever you want. You can have so many chapters and be whoever you want to be, and I just thought that would really kind of drive that point home and then it just took off.

And so the lyrics — I literally wrote in five minutes, so they’re not super deep or anything. It was just the first thing that came to my head, and I felt like it was relevant because as women we play so many roles throughout the day, especially as mothers, there's even more, so it was kind of, you know, just being everything.

Your new music video came out within hours of Charli XCX's video, which you were also featured in. How was the whirlwind of those releases?

I was like, damn, obviously, it’s not like the most ideal situation, but then I was like, actually, it kind of is because that’s my girl. And we’re not competing with each other — she’s totally in her own lane.

She’s the queen of pop and like, I’m just messing around. So it’s not like the same, but I love her. She’s so supportive. She’s really one of those people that actually supports women and doesn’t just think she does.

How did you find out you were name-dropped in Charli XCX's new song?

I think Richie (Shazam) had seen her out. And then Richie was like, “Oh, I saw Charli and she said she shouted to you out in her song and she wants us to be in the video for it.” And then I spoke to her a couple months later, and I was like, “Yeah, let me know when. I’m so down, of course. This is major.”

And then I went to LA for the Vanity Fair party, literally slept two hours, and then went and did the video with her. It was major.

Do you think you'll continue to make music?

I don’t know. I’m so busy and I have so many other things going on. I’ll do it as long as it’s fun, you know?

Making the song and doing the video, that was really fun. And I got to work with all my friends and that’s really the only way I’ll do some extracurricular s---. It has to be fun.

You've spoken about living with ADHD, OCD and postpartum depression. What do you think is misunderstood about mental health?

Well, I feel like people are always kind of getting behind mental health until someone’s having an episode and then they’d shame them and videotape it and put it online. It’s like, no, you have to support mental health even if it doesn’t look the way you want it to look. So, I feel like that’s really annoying — people that are like, it has to fit what they want it to be, and it has to not affect them for them to get behind it.

This is a constant battle. It’s a constant struggle, and it’s not always going to look the way you want it to or feel the way you want it to. But for me, it’s still something that I have to battle with all the time, but through things like self care and just being stable — stability around me — really helps me also maintain stability on the inside, too.

I think sometimes people will get called lazy or stuff like that. They're in bed, they’re scrolling on TikTok all day long, they’re just watching TV, they’re binge eating, and then they’ll be called lazy. And it’s like, no, their adrenal glands are shot. They just need to recharge.

Now that your memoir has been out for a few months, how has it been seeing the reaction to your story?

I mean, there’s moments where I’m like, “Oh my God, I forgot I wrote this book.” And like now everyone knows everything, or knows a lot, rather.

It definitely doesn’t feel super natural to just have random strangers know you when don’t know them — like that’s always a foreign feeling.

But obviously, I’m always just super flattered that someone would take the time and take hours and hours out of their life to read an entire book. Like, that’s insane.

You and Law Roach have a new show! How did you end up working with the legendary designer on “OMG Fashun?”

So when “Uncut Gems” came out, and we were looking for stylists, (Roach) was the only stylist that I followed in that way. So we reached out to Law’s team, but Law was too busy, but I didn’t let that discourage me.

When we were coming up with potential co-hosts and making that list, I put Law’s name down first. I was like, “There’s no way, like he’s already rejected me once, you know, he’s just not gonna go for it.” And then he did — he said yes, and it was like, the happiest day of my life.

Then I really, really got excited about doing the show, because I was getting to do it with him. It’s really changed everything for me.

This article was originally published on TODAY.com