Supposedly there is a well known and well respected actress named Julia Fox who is Italian American and supposedly she was a domme for a while!

Do any of you know much about her? Did her domming sharply improve her performance as an actress?

I read some fluff news articles about her time as a domina. It was, well, horrifying. I have nothing against her, but I don't like her lack of training. She worked in a large commercial dungeon (the consensus is Pandora's Box, but it has not been confirmed), and she has stories about being tossed into a session as a newbie. She was told to pretend she was an expert in sharps and medical play but had zero training.

I haven't seen her acting work, but, sure, I imagine if she can fake it through a session, she might be good at acting.

Wow. You know the NYC scene far better than I do, having lived there. Whenever I would visit and do guest appearances, the big name dungeons seemed so professional. Maybe a lot has changed since then, including ownership? That sounds like a huge liability for a dungeon to take, not even taking into account possibly losing a return client.

In this extract from her book "Down The Drain", she gives her name as Mistress name as "Valentina"

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/o...-down-the-drain



There was a Lady Valentina at Pandora's box from december 2008 to october 2011:

https://web.archive.org/web/20081218233218/http://www.pandorasboxny.com/mistress_valentina.htm

The photos aren't too high quality and only some of them are available, but it certainly could be her. It gives her height as 5'8", whereas google suggests Julia fox's height is somewhere between and 5'3" and 5?7?, however I've noticed height to be an area where many Mistresses employ "Domme Math" and count heels and round up. It also gives her ethnicity as "italian german" and Julia Fox is Italian on her mother's side.

So Pandora's Box seems quite likely.

It's confirmed -- she did this interview and went back for a photo shoot.

https://www.papermag.com/julia-fox-cat-marnell-dominatrix#rebelltitem37

I think you are right about how it used to be in places with a strong Head-Mistress presence. I tried to build a house of domination with smart, well-trained mistresses as this went into decline. I feel I had a great group and honestly, it was an ego boost. Not the best business model. The larger houses pretty much started revolving doors of hot young women who would do well for a few months and then leave. It worked for all the people wanting to try the new flavor, but yes it was very dangerous.

Rapture, as much as I hated Ted, at least trained the women there. Pandoras and Nutcracker left the women to fend for themselves. We know how that turned out.

Fox definitely made the best out of what she had. I can respect that. I am old and "harumphing" over people not getting the training they need.

I'd never heard of her and did a bit of Googling.

Reading about her online she's certainly not somebody I'd easily trust to play with. In various interviews she's disclosed she has a variety of mental health issues. She is OCD, has ADHD, is on the autism spectrum and is Bi-Polar. A product of a failed relationship and raised by what appear to be two neglectful parents she was living with a drug dealer by age 15.

When I put myself in the hands of a Domme I want her to be someone i feel to be stable, dependable and trustworthy.

After Rapture closed, I shot with a lot of the ladies who worked there. And, yes, they were all very skilled and emotionally engaged with their subjects. For whatever odd reason, Ted was nice to me but from what I saw of his behavior on MF and heard from other Doms, he could be a bit ....well....I will just say "Special."

One of the first articles I read as a teenager about Dominatrices was an interview with some very young women who were working in one of the big Dungeons in NYC. They basically described very minimal training, but a big payload. Show up in boots and pretend you know what you're doing, basically. Their sessions were mainly verbal humiliation, foot fetish, and service topping. From what I gathered these young Dommes learned by letting the sub teach them by topping from the bottom. I have to admit when I was a young Domme I've also used this method to learn a few things, like saline infusions. A sub approached Me about doing it and I was upfront about not knowing how, so I let him teach Me, he'd been doing it solo and with Dommes for 40 years so I trusted him. He got a session and I got the skillset. Women that want to stick around in the business learn to learn, and others just coast through on looks until something else comes around or they lose clients once they get a reputation as not being skilled. Not sure which Julia was, but I can confirm from a reputable source she was in fact a successful Domme at Pandoras for a while!

None of those things seemed to hurt her fame or career so I wouldn't use that as a judge of stability. Pretty sure most Dommes have at least one of those things on the list!