Drea de Matteo reveals she makes more from OnlyFans than she did on some of the biggest TV shows of all time

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.

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'.

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.

Drea de Matteo is best known for her role in The Sopranos (HBO)

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."

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.

Matteo started her OnlyFans when she was on the brink of losing her home (Paul Archuleta/Getty Images)

Responding to those who's criticized her as 'desperate,' Matteo said '100 percent' she was and 'desperate times call for desperate measures'.

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."