“The Sopranos” star Drea de Matteo announced in late August that she was launching an OnlyFans account that followers could subscribe to for $15 a month. Now in an interview with Fox News Digital, the actor explained that pivoting to OnlyFans came as a result of losing acting work over the last couple of years due to her stance against COVID vaccine mandates.

“I know some people have said some nasty things about me having joined OnlyFans,” de Matteo said. “But, you know, the way we see it in this house is mommy’s a warrior, not accepting defeat…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.”

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According to de Matteo, she was forced to “switch careers and figure new things out because my own industry thinks I’m a savage” due to her beliefs against COVID vaccine mandates. She added, “I guess you could say I was a bad girl because I did not follow the rules a couple of years ago.”

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De Matteo said her views resulted in her agent dropping her, and she “almost lost our home” due to acting work drying up.

“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 said. “People think I’m fucking 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.”

“I just don’t care. I don’t. I’d rather save my family than save face,” she added, noting that her daughters gave their blessings for her to launch an OnlyFans account.

“I used to have a lot of money,” de Matteo said. “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. So when people make nasty comments about why I would have [joined OnlyFans], my response is, ‘Damn straight, I hope you’re never in the fucking position I’m in.’ I take care of an entire family and a lot of other people who depend on me.”

Outside of her Emmy-winning work on “The Sopranos,” de Matteo’s credits include films such as “Broken English” and “Dark Places” and television series like “Mayans M.C.” and “A Million Little Things.” “The Sopranos” is available to stream on its entirety on Max.

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