Despite year hears on The Sopranos, Drea Matteo had two kids, a mother with dementia, a flooded house, a massive unpaid mortgage bill and $10 in the bank when she decided to post racy photos on the subscription site OnlyFans. The impact was immediate.
“I was like, holy sh*t,” recalled the actress in a recent interview. “In five minutes, I was able to pay back Compass real estate who kept the sale of my house.”
De Matteo has spoken of the decision before, citing a loss of work due to her vaccine stance and issues paying her mortgage, but never fully revealed the extent of the financial bind that she was in.
“They put me into foreclosure and my house had flooded, so I was trying to sell the house quickly. I wanted to try and sell it before they took it,” the actress told the Daily Mail.
“At the same time, I lost my mom, and my other mom, who has dementia, had run out of money for her caregiver. I didn’t know which way was up.”
The move to the subscription site allowed her to support her two kids and even finance her own streetwear brand, Ultrafree.
“It saved us. OnlyFans saved my life, 100 percent. I can’t believe I’m saying that, but it really did save us.”
De Matteo played Adriana the first five seasons of The Sopranos. After Adriana became an informant for the FBI, Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini) ordered her killed. Silvio Dante (Steven Van Zandt) murdered her in a memorable episode, but de Matteo returned for two episodes in season 6. She won an Emmy for the role in 2004.
After The Sopranos, de Matteo appeared on shows such as Desperate Housewives and Sons of Anarchy, among others.
But that did not free her financially for the rest of her life, the actress revealed.
“People think I’m f***ing made of gold,” she said last year, “and I’m not. I’ve worked job to job.”
As for judgements others may have about her work on OnlyFans, De Matteo is pragmatic.
“I just don’t care. I don’t. I’d rather save my family than save face.”
