““Someone can watch this and be like, ‘Maybe I’m not doing so bad.’””
That was “Uncut Gems” actress Julia Fox kicking off her “very underwhelming apartment tour” that has gone viral on TikTok.
The 32-year-old model (who dated Kanye West for about a month last year) posted a three-minute video tour of her self-described “tiny” apartment this week — where she has a “little small mouse problem,” she admits — that has been viewed 6.6 million times and counting already.
The self-filmed footage features Fox walking viewers through her one-bedroom Manhattan apartment (complete with “very long hallway” where “nothing happens”), where she reveals that she sleeps in the living room because she’s fixed up the solo bedroom for her son, Valentino, who turns one next month. “I really wanted him to have a cute room,” she explains, which is why the kiddo’s space looks the most polished, but her own bed is in the converted living room.
As for the rest of the apartment, there are shoe boxes stacked in the kitchen, which she says is “very common for New Yorkers.” (The jury is still out on that one, although “Sex and the City” character Carrie Bradshaw did memorably store clothes in her unused oven.) Clothes are stacked in the bathroom, which she also calls “tiny” but “it does what it’s supposed to do.” And she apologizes for the place looking “really messy,” as well.
““I don’t like excessive displays of wealth. They make me feel icky.””
But the moment that has really gone viral across TikTok and Twitter is when she talks about mice — although it should be noted that she contradicts this with her video caption which clarifies that, despite headlines suggesting she lives in a rat or rodent-infested flat, “I have only ONE mouse and he’s cute.”
“It’s a problem depending on how you look at it. I kind of let them (the mice) rock,” she says in the video. She explains that while she and her son are sleeping at night, “I appreciate that … they come out and clean up the crumbs that my son drops on the floor.
“I’m not gonna evict the mice anytime soon,” she adds.
MarketWatch was not able to immediately reach Fox for comment. But she responded to some of the comments under her video. Many of her fans were gushing how relatable the apartment tour is, commenting that she’s “just like us.”
But when one person questioned the authenticity of her seemingly relatable lifestyle by suggesting “her net worth is $30 mil and we’re struggling to pay rent,” Fox replied by telling people not to believe everything they read online. “I’m not even close to $30 mil,” she added.
Fox also replied under another post marveling at how big her apartment looks, writing that she grew up in “a shoebox” and adding that “it’s crazy” what can be considered a big apartment by NYC standards.
Indeed, New York City has the most expensive rents in the country, with the median rent prices for a one-bedroom apartment hovering just below an eyewatering $3,900.
And Fox isn’t the only one who’s been dealing with a rodent infestation (whether that be “one cute mouse” or a rat pack) in her home. This has become such a huge problem that the city is hiring a “rat czar” for $120,000 to $170,000 a year.
Fox also claimed that her video tour was for the sake of “transparency” with her fans, and said her more humble living conditions are intentional.
“For me, personally … I don’t like excessive displays of wealth. They make me feel icky,” she said. “Especially people that have really big houses. It’s just really wasteful when there’s so many homeless people in this country.”
That also struck a chord with many of her fans in the comments. “So nice to see a celeb home that actually feels lived in,” wrote one, whose own comment drew 31,000 “likes” on TikTok. “Love you are showing that success looks different for every person,” added another.
Credit: marketwatch.com