Julia Fox Writes About Working As A Teenage Dominatrix

Midway through Julia Fox’s memoir, Down the Drain, the debut author goes into detail about her time as a dominatrix in New York City, which she’s alluded to in previous interviews.

According to the book, she found the job listing on Craigslist as a teenager, for which no sex, nudity, or experience was required. The application required a full-body image, a mini bio, and a short essay response (“Describe in detail most sadistic sexual fantasy”). Fox interviewed and landed the job immediately, choosing Valentina for her mistress name.

On Day One, she arrived at an unmarked location in Chelsea, which reeked of “a special blend of sewage, smoke, urine, candles, and Lysol,” writes Fox, who starred in Uncut Gems.

She was told she looked like “a cheap hooker” in the clothes she’d brought (a “mismatched black cotton thong and bra and ripped pantyhose and bright red lipstick”) and ultimately borrowed ill-fitting clothes from the shared closet.

Her first client, Stew, asked her to blow cigarette smoke into a tube connected to a mask he wore and said Fox could urinate on him. He played a CD of his Strokes cover band.

“He’s completely naked, and his balls are tightly bound to a rope that’s connected to a torture device hanging from the ceiling,” she writes in Down the Drain. “The smells of Axe body spray and sweat emanate from his body, mixing with the acrid odor of the burning cigarettes.”

“A splitting headache throbs behind my bloodshot eyes, and my back and knees ache from kneeling for so long,” she continues. “I steal glances at the digital clock on the corner, but time seems to have frozen and the minutes drag on for hours.”

Having to relieve herself, Fox urinated on Stew.

During the session, she learned he was into gay porn and leaned into the content of his laptop’s saved videos. “He jerks off furiously as he maniacally skips from video to video, occasionally asking for my input,” Fox writes. “I sit next to him awkwardly, as it doesn’t really seem like he needs me, but since he’s paying for my services I decide to try something.”

Fox asked him, “I bet you wanna suck that big cock like a little slut, don’t you?” He enjoyed it and orgasmed, according to the book.

In that moment, Fox had a realization. “Part of this job is reading between the lines,” she writes. “I have to know what [clients] want before they’ve even come to terms with it. I understand the secret to this trade.”

Stew ultimately became a regular client of Fox’s. “He comes to see me almost every night,” she writes. “He’s loyal to me.”

Within a month of working at “the dungeon,” Fox was able to save enough money to move into her own studio apartment in New York’s Meatpacking District. After six months, she decided to leave the job.

“I’m beginning to find it harder and harder to jump in and out of character all day,” she writes about that time period. “I’m exhausted by the easiest of sessions. ... I feel drained. I feel depleted. I’m burnt out.” On her final day working as a dominatrix, Fox met her sugar daddy, Rohan, who ultimately funded her New York lifestyle.

Down the Drain, which is available now, also features Fox reckoning with fame and sharing plenty of candid stories, from her relationship with Kanye West to the time she consulted a medium.