Julie Ann Emery Steps Into a New Chapter With Solo Mio

Julie Ann Emery has built a career on inhabiting women who carry weight - emotional, moral, and psychological - often standing at the intersection of pressure and determination. From Better Call Saul to Five Days at Memorial, her performances have consistently resisted simplification, favoring complexity over comfort. Yet as she steps into Solo Mio, opening February 4, 2026, Emery arrives in a moment of rare equilibrium: more settled in herself, more trusting of the path behind her, and openly curious about what lies next.

Julie Ann Emery, photo by JSquared Photography.

Starring opposite Kevin James, Solo Mio marks a tonal shift: less crisis-driven, more intimate, while still engaging the emotional intelligence that defines Emery’s work. Set against the romantic sprawl of Italy, the film explores love and reinvention, themes that resonate deeply with an actress who has long sought contrast in her roles and truth in human contradiction. Whether navigating catastrophe, comedy, drama, or quiet self-reckoning, Emery approaches each character as a means of understanding the world and herself more fully. Coming into Solo Mio, refining who she is: an actress grounded in purpose, open to uncertainty, and deeply committed to illuminating our shared humanity.

You’ve portrayed women navigating pressure, chaos, and moral complexity for much of your career. As you step into this moment, personally and professionally, what feels most settled in your life, and what still feels beautifully unresolved?

This is such a beautiful question. I tend to do a lot of self-reflection and self-work in between projects, looking for growth. Shifting how I see the world. So that when these beautifully complicated characters come to me, I have even more to pour into them. I love to climb inside minds that are not like my own. It is the way I enter and understand the world, and hopefully, the way my work can help others with that same understanding. I am more settled than ever in myself and my purpose. More trusting of the path I am walking and what has led to now. And I am actually excited about what is beautifully unresolved. When you are an actor, you never know what is coming next. The most incredible roles and experiences of my life so far have come in unexpected ways. I look forward to the next unexpected journey.

After intense, high-stakes roles like Five Days at Memorial, Solo Mio arrives with a very different emotional temperature. What drew you to this story at this point in your life, and what felt the most timely or necessary for you to explore?

Well, first off, I really miss the Rom Com. There is so much hope and humanity in our journey to love. We could use a little more of that in the world. My first studio movie was Hitch in 2005 with Kevin James. Kevin is a lovely guy; he was so kind to my family at the Hitch premiere. It was an easy yes to reunite with him on another Rom Com. And the truth is, I tend to be very drawn to the opposite of what I have recently done. Both in character and project. I jumped into Hitch right after a gritty TV drama called Line of Fire. And immediately after leaving Italy, where we filmed Solo Mio, I jumped onto Beast in Me for Netflix, a very dark show. More recently, I played a stripper who never quite grew up in Busted for director Maria Bissell, a coming-of-age dark comedy with Elsie Fisher and Mel Rodriguez, and an FBI profiler in The Green River Killer, a couple of weeks after wrap.

Your character is rooted in place - an Italian local, while the story itself is about dislocation and emotional aftermath. How did you prepare to inhabit that sense of cultural and emotional steadiness, especially opposite a character who arrives broken and untethered?

I play Heather in Solo Mio, a woman who travels to Rome to get married, only to discover that what she is supposed to want - is not in fact what she does. The world tells us there are a lot of supposed-to’s in life, but everyone is on their own journey, and very few fit into the box that is convenient. I appreciate how Solo Mio handles that arc. It’s easy to walk around Rome and be immersed in the culture and romance of the city. But wherever you go, there YOU are. Our troubles and conflicts come with us. The real journey is internal.

You reunite onscreen with Kevin James years after Hitch, but this time, in a very different kind of story. How did your shared history shape the dynamic between your characters, and what surprised you about working together again in this new context?

Our first day together on set was a very emotional scene. The climax of the film. I think it was a relief to both of us to have shared history walking into that. A trust that helps you follow the scene wherever it needs to go. To look into each other’s eyes and not see a stranger on day one was lucky this time. We have an easy rapport and understanding of the way the other works.

From Betsy Kettleman’s controlled intensity to Diane Robichaux’s crisis leadership and now this softer romantic role, your work resists being boxed into one emotional register. How consciously do you seek contrast in your roles, and what kind of characters are you most curious about now?

I almost entirely seek contrast in my roles, and I have from the beginning of my career. That wasn’t easy in Hollywood, but I found my way to reps that relish the challenge of that and casting directors who were willing to bring me in for wildly different kinds of roles. I think this is the key to our shared humanity. To be curious about people unlike ourselves. It is my place in the world to shine a light on our shared humanity, regardless of our differences. Hopefully, to spread some understanding. I am always most curious about something unlike anything else I have done. Complex, complicated minds to dive into and bring to life.

You’ve received critical recognition for your recent work, but acclaim doesn’t always align with personal fulfillment. Which performances have stayed with you the longest, even if audiences never fully saw what they required of you?

Diane Robichaux in Five Days at Memorial required such a deep dive, such a nakedly emotional journey. And because it is based on true events, it haunted me afterward. I am usually pretty good at leaving the character on set, but that story was difficult to shake after we wrapped. And you know what, it should be. What the people there went through is horrific, and they deserved our full capacity in bringing the story to a larger audience. John Ridley and Carlton Cuse set up such a safe environment on that set, such a cohesive group dedicated to the emotional truth of the story, that I was able to go further than I might have on a less friendly set. It is the project I am most proud to be part of in my career.

If viewers meet you for the first time through Solo Mio, what do you hope they discover about you: not just as an actress, but as a woman navigating love, work, and reinvention in real time?

We have this one precious life. Follow your heart, go for your dreams, don’t squander the time you are given. It’s never too late, and you are worth it.