Drea de Matteo, best known for her role on The Sopranos, says she joined OnlyFans after her acting jobs dried up following her stance against taking the COVID-19 vaccine.
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As Hollywood emerged from the pandemic, major studios mandated actors and crew working on film and TV productions be vaccinated against the virus. In a new interview with Fox News, de Matteo says she was forced to “switch careers and figure new things out because my own industry thinks I’m a savage.”
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“I guess you could say I was a bad girl because I did not follow the rules a couple of years ago. So, I don’t want to be at the mercy of mandates or strike or anything like that ever again,” the Emmy winner says.
The actress went on to add that her agent dumped her and her family “almost lost our home over” her refusal to get vaccinated.
De Matteo joined the R-rated site last month making her announcement with a nude photo on her Instagram posing in a pair of animal-print boots, smoking a cigarette while sitting on a bed. “OnlyFans is live now,” she wrote in a follow-up post that showed her in a black two-piece swimsuit.
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For $15 per month, subscribers get access to uncensored shots of the 51-year-old.
Other celebrities who have embraced the platform include Iggy Azalea, Denise Richards, Carmen Electra, Cardi B, Bella Thorne, Tyga, and Chris Brown.
De Matteo tells Fox that her decision to join the service was motivated by her need to provide for the two children she shares with her ex Shooter Jennings.
“I know some people have said some nasty things about me having joined OnlyFans. But, you know, the way we see it in this house is mommy’s a warrior, not accepting defeat,” de Matteo explains.
“I figured, ‘OK, so everybody’s in their underwear and being sexy on Instagram and I don’t do that, but I can do that and get paid for it.’ … I don’t know why I didn’t think of this sooner,” she continues.
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De Matteo played Adriana La Cerva in the first five seasons of The Sopranos. But after Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini) discovered she was working as an informant for the FBI, he ordered her killed. In one of the show’s most heartbreaking episodes, Silvio Dante (Steven Van Zandt) chased her down in a leaf-filled forest, begging for mercy.
After her run on the show ended, de Matteo went on to appear on Sons of Anarchy, Mayans M.C., and Shades of Blue.
Following her OnlyFans announcement, fans cheered her career change. “Couldn’t have joined her OF any faster… Beautiful,” one fan wrote, while another added, “If getting in on the ground floor of Drea De Matteo’s Onlyfans is wrong I don’t wanna be right.”
De Matteo says she went from having “a lot of money” to wondering how she was going to feed her family.
“My kids were the ones that were like, ‘Do it.’ She’ll (de Matteo’s daughter) edit the pictures, too, because they want certain things that we haven’t been able to do. I used to have a lot of money. And then, all of a sudden, I went from being allowed to work to never being allowed to work again. I was never the kind of actor who took jobs just to stay in the business. I literally took jobs to feed my family,” de Matteo says.
“So, when people make nasty comments about why I would have done that, my response is, ‘Damn straight, I hope you’re never in the f—ing position I’m in. I take care of an entire family and a lot of other people who depend on me.”
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De Matteo says her kids read some of the comments online about their mother’s new venture, and she worried about how they’d react to some of the vitriol aimed her way.
“My daughter read (an article) and read some of the hater comments. I sat down, and I go, ‘You know, mommy is not the things that they’re trying to say.’ She’s like, ‘We don’t even have to have this conversation.’ She schooled me,” says de Matteo.
“But my kids are old enough now to read, and everything I do, I do for them. Everything I’ve given up, I’ve given up for them. I mean, any sacrifice I made was for them. So, they’re going to go ahead and read this stuff and have a different image of me because of what people are saying because God knows how suggestive this society has become.”
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De Matteo says the perception she’s wealthy just because she appeared on one of the most famous TV shows of all time is completely false.
“People find that hard to believe that I was never really paid very much money for any of the jobs I’ve done,” de Matteo says. “People think I’m f—ing made of gold, and I’m not. I’ve worked job to job. And I’ve turned down tons of jobs in the past just to be with my children because their dad’s on the road, and he’s not around as much.”
But after her success on the adult platform, de Matteo is embracing her newfound fame and tuning out the haters.
“I just don’t care. I don’t. I’d rather save my family than save face,” she says.