Skins star Megan Prescott has slammed the hit British drama for ‘sexualising her’ as a teenager on TV and claims she is better treated on OnlyFans.
The 34-year-old actress, who was just 16 when she shot to fame as Katie Fitch on the era-defining Channel 4 show, featured between series three and four.
Notorious for its explicit and controversial portrayal of teenage sex, mental illness and drug use, Skins has come under fire in recent years for its lack of safeguarding, with Kaya Scodelario in particular voicing her opinion.
Now, Megan, who worked in strip clubs in her early 20s before turning to OnlyFans in the pandemic, has called out how she was allowed to film explicit scenes with an actor almost double her age.
‘I’m treated better on OnlyFans than I was on Skins, she told Cosmopolitan magazine.
‘We see it with child stars all the time. They’re highly sexualised, but then as soon as they get to an age where they’re like “You’re right, this does make money but I am going to be the main benefactor of it”, people are like “Stop, I don’t like the idea of you selling sexuality.”
‘They want women to be sexual, but only under their control.
‘The hypocrisy has always stuck with me. I was on TV, as a child, having sex scenes, on a show where a lot of people made a lot of money… if we are collectively OK with that (which whether or not we should be or not is a different story) then why can’t I, as a grown woman, take ownership of my image and sexuality back and earn three times as much?’
The 34-year-old added that people thought the actors made more money than they actually did.
‘We worked it out by the hour once, and it was minimum wage,’ she said.
‘Of course, £400 a week to a 16-year-old I was like ‘I’m rich’ but when you look back… Our contacts also meant we don’t see any money from any streaming platforms.’
Previously, Megan told Metro that she had a ‘reality check’ after leaving Skins when she found it difficult to find other work.
Aside from small appearances in shows such as Silent Witness and Holby City, she then began her foray into sex work.
‘The second I started stripping there was a lot of internalised misogyny,’ Megan said, speaking about the first time she forayed into sex work.
‘I thought “I can’t tell people this, if anyone in the acting industry finds out I’ll never work again.” I think a decade ago that would have been true, unfortunately. So I went back to doing regular side jobs for minimum wage.’
However, after her manager refused to furlough her during Covid, Megan took a friend’s advice and launched an OnlyFans account.
‘It completely changed my life,’ she said, noting it was a key source of income for her at the time.
Skins, which ran from 2007 to 2013, is renown for launching the careers of acclaimed actors such as Dev Patel, Nicholas Hoult, Daniel Kaluuya and Kaya.
Metro has contacted Channel 4 for comment.
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