Drea de Matteo is a star who has achieved much over the course of her life, including a remarkable $15 million net worth. While that’s not as large as some of the other actors’ net worths we’ve seen, it’s still more money than we could ever hope to make in our lives. And she earned it fair and square, too. Between her Emmy award-worthy performance on the ensemble that was The Sopranos and her work on other well-known tv shows like Sons of Anarchy, de Matteo has proven time and time again that you don’t need to be a household name to have a thoroughly recognizable face. Was it solely through acting that she amassed such a large net worth, though? Even the biggest stars have other revenue streams that help them earn cash. What’s Drea de Matteo got up her sleeve?
The Sopranos Were Sweet
Well, not the characters in the show. The production company, however, was very, very nice to her and greatly increased her net worth. “Going into Season Five, de Matteo and several co-stars (including Robert Iler, who played A.J.) renegotiated their contracts. For the final 10 episodes she appeared in on the show, de Matteo earned $75,000. That made her final year on The Sopranos worth $750,000 pre-tax,” an absolutely jaw-dropping amount considering the fact that she was cast in a few other projects around that same time too. To contextualize it for anyone reading, Drea de Matteo earned the equivalent of an average middle-class yearly salary for a single episode’s work; typically a handful of days on set. Let this be a lesson to anyone questioning whether or not they should try negotiating their salary.
She certainly didn’t start out that high, though. This was a slow climb kind of process. She “worked her way up to $400 a day as a regular player. By the time she nailed down the character of Adriana, she was earning $30,000 per episode,” but that happened over the course of years. No doubt in her past she had many other $300 to $400 days under her belt. Day players in the film and tv world are interesting because they’re typically only on set for a day. Characters that appear in one or two scenes are classified as day players, as are roles like waitress #2 or cool-guy-who-flashes-a-peace-sign-at-the-mall. These roles are crucial in building your way up to a net worth like de Matteo’s, but they certainly don’t contribute to it.
It’s Only Up From Here
Okay, de Matteo earned a lot from The Sopranos; great. That doesn’t fully answer the question of her total net worth, though, does it? $750,000 is a ton of money, but nowhere close to the $15 million she’s listed as having. Well, friends, the secret lies in the mysteries of the small-screen. The Sopranos was just the tip of the iceberg when it came to getting cast in sizeable roles. With an Emmy nomination under her belt, it’s reasonable to think that she could book any role she went out for. However, she’s still auditioning for things like everyone else. The difference is that after her successful negotiations, she raised the pay scale for herself forever. Earning $75,000 an episode set a precedent for the rest of her contract negotiations forever. Not only that, but she likely has enough to clout to pull for even more specialty things in her riders.
While we couldn’t begin to fathom how much she was paid for her roles on Sons of Anarchy or Desperate Housewives, we’re sure that she raked in quite a bit of cash, mostly due to that precedent that we were talking about earlier. Now, we’re not saying that she magically is going to receive $75,000 an episode for anything she’s ever on forever now. No, that’s likely not the case, especially if she’s booked a day player role. But she’s certainly got cash in her contracts. Besides, long term roles always pay more on the royalties end too. Not only that, but she takes enough breaks from working to always be in demand. De Matteo could totally work more if she wanted to, or even expand out into promotional roles; she seems pretty set on focusing on her home life, though.
All in all Drea de Matteo has earned the bulk of her net worth through acting. She might have some stocks or investments saved up somewhere, but we couldn’t find anything about them. Her $15 million was garnered exclusively through her work skyrocketing after settling into her Sopranos role, and honestly, we don’t blame anyone for that being the case. There are so many actors out there, and de Matteo had to work hard to prove her worth. But now, with an Emmy nomination under her belt, she could effectively charge anything she wanted to. Heck, we’d pay her for just a phone call if we could!