Drea de Matteo's income from OnlyFans compares greatly to the money she made from her TV appearances.
Matteo - best known for playing Adriana La Cerva in iconic HBO drama The Sopranos - has already opened up about how OnlyFans helped her escape the 'shifty s**t' that goes on in Hollywood, but it also gave her much more 'freedom' when it came to her finances as well.
The 52-year-old actor reflects she 'never got paid a lot to act' and 'was always paid the lowest, to a degree'.
Despite The Sopranos being one of the most well-recognized American crime drama series of all time, Matteo says 'there wasn't a lot of money' when she first started out on it.
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She explains to Metro: "I was a day player, then I became a recurring [character] – they were hard-nosed, the way they negotiated with us. It wasn’t until the end of The Sopranos that I was actually making a normal episodic pay."
And it wasn't just that gig that didn't pay that well either according to Matteo. For Sons of Anarchy, Matteo claims 'FX didn't really pay [her] at all' .
UNILAD has contacted FX for comment.
She then went and did Desperate Housewives but notes that was a 'one-year contract', and so a 'lower pay scale'.
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However, she notes American sitcom and spin-off to Friends, Joey was 'probably the most decent pay [she] had because [she] was on network TV for 21 episodes'.
But none of her TV appearances led her to make even a fraction of what she now earns through OnlyFans.
Matteo continues: "I never really made a ton of money, so yes, I made more money on OnlyFans. It’s a true story. I know that sounds crazy but it’s not sustainable money for the long term."
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The actor began her OnlyFans endeavours after nearly losing her home, noting her kids joked she should 'just put [her] feet up there' and 'save [the] house'.
"Did I want to do it? F**k no, I didn’t want to do it. I was totally anonymous. I never anticipated being thrown to the wolves the way I was when it came out," she continued.
Responding to those who's criticized her as 'desperate,' Matteo said '100 percent' she was and 'desperate times call for desperate measures'.
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She added: "I hope that any of the haters out there that have said s**t like that don’t ever find themselves in the same position I was in. I embraced it, because what was I going to do?"
What's more, the actor has even found 'a little community of folks that tune in' and come to 'talk to [her] about politics and The Sopranos'.
Matteo resolved: "For the most part, it’s a fan page. It’s given me the financial freedom to say, “F**k Hollywood” and [...] to be outspoken about what really matters to me."
Topics: Drea de Matteo, Film and TV, Money, OnlyFans, Entertainment
Poppy Bilderbeck