Drea de Matteo said she needed to “save” her family after losing so much work during the coronavirus pandemic — which is why she joined OnlyFans.
“I guess you could say I was a bad girl because I did not follow the rules a couple of years ago,” de Matteo, 51, told Fox News in an interview published on Thursday, September 14. “I don’t want to be at the mercy of mandates or strike or anything like that ever again.”
De Matteo — who is best known for playing Adriana La Cerva on The Sopranos — claimed her agent dropped her after she refused to comply with Hollywood mandates about the COVID-19 vaccine. As work opportunities dried up, she said her family nearly lost their home.
“People find it hard to believe that I was never really paid very much money for any of the jobs I’ve done,” de Matteo said. “People think I’m f–king 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.”
De Matteo shares daughter Alabama, 15, and son Waylon, 12, with ex-fiancé Shooter Jennings. She is currently in a relationship with musician Robby Staebler.
According to the actress, her kids were actually the people who encouraged her to join OnlyFans. “I’d rather save my family than save face,” de Matteo added, noting that Alabama helps her edit her posts. “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 that took jobs just to stay in the business. I literally took jobs to feed my family.”
Last month, de Matteo announced her debut on the NSFW social media platform, which allows users to share uncensored content with followers who pay a fee. Subscriptions to her account cost $15 per month.
In the bio section of her page, de Matteo nodded to her past work on The Sopranos, writing, “The Sopornos.” She played Adriana, the off-and-on girlfriend of Christopher Moltisanti (Michael Imperioli), on seasons 1 through 5 of the beloved HBO drama. After Adriana became an informant for the FBI, Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini) ordered her killed. De Matteo won an Emmy for the role in 2004.
She later starred on Sons of Anarchy, Mayans M.C., Shades of Blue and A Million Little Things.
