Drea de Matteo had a quick bout of stardom following her nearly seven-year run on Sopranos. But in 2020, she disappeared from the limelight almost as quickly as she entered.
The 51-year-old earned her big break when she landed the role of Adriana La Cerva in the HBO classic in 1999. She even won a Primetime Emmy for her portrayal of Christopher Moltisanti’s girlfriend. When she exited the series in 2006, she had no trouble finding work in other hit series.
De Matteo moved on to have pivotal roles in Desperate Housewives, Joey, Sons of Anarchy, and A Million Little Pieces. But after the COVID pandemic hit in 2020, she claims she struggled to find work due to her stance on the vaccine. To make ends meet, she opened an OnlyFans page.
“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 told Fox News Digital in September. “…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.”
Drea de Matteo is Shifting Her Focus Away From Acting
The actress shared that she refused to follow Hollywood’s mandates after the quarantine lifted, which forced her to “switch careers and figure new things out.” She said her agent dropped her, and after going too long without a gig, she almost lost her home.
To liquidate her assets, Drea de Matteo listed her beachside house in New York for nearly $6 million in July. Another one of her homes in Laurel Canyon, California, hit the market in 2022 for $4 million. She dropped the price to $3.6 million when it hadn’t sold by May of 2023.
“People find that hard to believe that I was never really paid very much money for any of the jobs I’ve done,” she continued. “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.”
Drea de Matteo said she ultimately decided she needed to “save” her family instead of saving face. So with her daughters’ “blessings,” she opened her account.
In the past few years, de Matteo has been able to get back into TV and film on a smaller scale. She had a six-episode guest role in Paradise City, starred In four low-budget films, and had a cameo in Mayans M.C. But she isn’t planning to keep acting as her main career.
According to Fox, de Matteo remains focused on her OnlyFans account. And she’s working on building a partnership with Nocking Point Wine so she can rep its Gangster Goddess Sauvignon Blanc, which is named after her podcast. She’s also opening a T-shirt printing company with her boyfriend, Robby Staebler.