Despite appearing on The Sopranos for a year, Drea Matteo had two children, a mother with dementia, a flooded house, a huge unpaid mortgage bill and $10 in the bank when she decided to post lewd photos on the subscription Post OnlyFans page. The effect was immediate.
“I was like, holy shit,” the actress recalled in a recent interview. “In five minutes, I was able to repay Compass Real Estate, which kept the sale of my home going.”
De Matteo has previously spoken about the decision, citing a loss of work due to her vaccine hesitancy and problems paying her mortgage, but has never fully disclosed the extent of the financial predicament she found herself in.
“They put me in foreclosure and my house was flooded, so I tried to sell the house quickly. I wanted to try and sell it before they took it,” the actress told the Chron.
“At the same time, I lost my mother and my other mother, who suffers from dementia, lacked the money to pay for her carer. I didn’t know which way was up.”
Switching to the subscription site allowed her to support her two children and even fund her own streetwear brand, Ultrafree.
“It saved us. OnlyFans saved my life 100 percent. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but it really saved us.”
De Matteo played Adriana in 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 in 2004 for this role.
After “The Sopranos,” de Matteo appeared in series such as “Desperate Housewives” and “Sons of Anarchy,” among others.
But that didn't free her financially for the rest of her life, the actress revealed.
“People think I’m made of gold,” she said last year, “and I’m not. I worked from job to job.”
When it comes to other people's judgments about her work on OnlyFans, De Matteo is pragmatic.
“I just don’t care. I don't. I would rather save my family than save face.”