There is an uncooperative bird in Julia Fox's backyard. On this beautiful Friday of Labor Day weekend, the creature seems to pipe up anytime either one of us starts to talk. "You've got to be kidding me," Fox says, faux annoyed. "We have to bring my cats out here and give it the scare of a lifetime." Then she roars to demonstrate. When the happy chirping of a bird isn't intruding on our interview (fair play, we're in its natural habitat, not the other way around), the intermittent eardrum-shattering drill of nearby construction is. "We're trying to do a nice girlie thing out here in our cute Wonderland garden," Fox says, rolling her eyes, "and there we go - 5:30 on a Friday on a holiday weekend." It would all be annoying if it didn't feel so funny, so New York and (to quote Charli XCX's It Girl anthem '360') so Julia. A veteran of the art and fashion scene - and now the star of Universal Pictures' 'Him' (in theaters Sept. 19) - Fox first captured national attention in 2019's 'Uncut Gems' opposite Adam Sandler. She hasn't let it go since. The vibe is wonderfully chaotic but also totally fine, expected almost, as we sit in the overgrown loveliness of Fox's NYC oasis. I wonder out loud whether the interruptions are potentially the work of her house ghost, Beauty, who Fox says has inhabited the space for longer than she has and who I worry might not like strangers lurking. "We'll have to see," Fox responds. "A pipe may break tomorrow, and that'll be her way of saying, 'Absolutely not.'" But, she adds, Beauty is used to guests: "There's always a lot of people here; it's a revolving door. But it's for the most part good people, like, no bad apples." RICHIE SHAZAM That's by design. Fox, 35, purchased the brownstone in 2023 with her best friend, photographer Richie Shazam (who shot her cover story!), and they live here together with Fox's son, Valentino, 4, and Shazam's partner, Ben Draghi. The home is the diametric opposite of the anarchic, often abusive milieus of Fox's childhood and adolescence (in Italy and NYC), which were populated by apples ranging from mediocre to rotten and reflected a general lack of stability that included addiction and periods of being unhoused. Why Julia Fox Regrets Getting Plastic Surgery to Appeal to Men "This is my dream life - having a home I bought with my best friend from childhood," she says, one where the fridge is stocked and there's no yelling or violence. "We have a child in the house and animals and it's messy. But it's warm and it's colorful and there's art everywhere and music playing and it always smells like food because someone's always cooking. That's the dream I always dreamt. It wasn't so much being famous or being a star - that just happened. This is what I actively worked toward." In fact, Fox was the last person to know she was headed for fame. "A lot of people saw it coming more than I did," she says. "There was a lot of, like... 'We always knew you were gonna be famous,'" to which she would reply, "'No, I'm not. Like, shut up.'" RICHIE SHAZAM I ask how she spends most of her time at home: "Domestic labor, babe," she says. "Cooking, cleaning, bath time, playing - lots of playing - dancing, sports, art... It's always something, but then at the end of the night, we all get to watch a movie together, and it's like, 'Oh, OK, I worked all day for this moment, yay.'" Though Fox may look like the coolest kid at the table, her life structure is an update of that treasured American convention, the nuclear family - and her version is one she hopes more people will choose, "especially right now, where there is just so much hostility toward women." Being in Fox's home is like being at a very hip, very laid-back friend's. There is a crush of footwear near the entryway (it's a shoes-off house). Valentino scuttles up the stairs. Friends and collaborators (they're rarely one or the other) shuffle in and out of rooms. The space functions as a sort of collective or commune, a bit how I picture Warhol's Factory, but more low-key. It is grand but not fancy, clearly a place where people actually live, not a look-but-don't-touch showpiece. Julia Fox Seemingly Comes Out as a Lesbian: 'So Sorry, Boys' "The movies and all the amazing things I do are like, Wow," she says, "but it doesn't hit in the same way as the little things. I know people are probably rolling their eyes, but love is important, friendship is important, family is important. Money comes and goes and opportunities come and go. You could be an It Girl this season, and next season you're nobody. So you have to make sure there are things that do stay forever." RICHIE SHAZAM; Artwork by Pow Martinez The quiet quaintness of Fox's life may surprise those who know her only from her outrageous wardrobe or preternaturally cool clique of celeb friends, which includes Madonna and Paris Hilton. And, oh, yeah, there's the growing résumé; She guests on the CBS hit 'Elsbeth' this season (as a "grief influencer"!), but right now, she's in t