Megan Prescott has hit out at being sexualised as a teen on the controversial drama Skins as she claimed she is now treated better on OnlyFans.
The show, which launched the careers of many of its stars, was unapologetic about teen sex, drugs and identity.
The actress, now 34, was just 16 when she landed her role on the E4 drama in 2009, remaining on the show until the end of season four.
In a new interview, Megan said she was sexualised on screen, earning £400 a week while filming explicit scenes with an actor almost double her age.
She explained that the role pushed her far outside her comfort zone, having only dated boys her own age before being required to portray a promiscuous character.
At the time of filming, there were no intimacy coordinators on set and while she does not allege any wrongdoing, Megan said the planning and support around explicit scenes was lacking.
Megan Prescott has hit out at creepy sex scenes on the controversial drama Skins as she claimed she is now treated better on OnlyFans
The actress, now 34, was just 16 when she landed her role on the E4 drama in 2009, remaining on the show until the end of season four
She told Cosmopolitan magazine: ‘I’m treated better on OnlyFans than I was on Skins.’
Megan continued: ‘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.’
While she went on to land more acting roles after Skins, with money tight and odd jobs not proving fruitful enough, Megan ended up entering the sex industry – first working as a stripper before creating her own racy content on OnlyFans.
Explaining how her work in the adult industry different from her acting career, she previously told the Daily Mail: ‘The difference is control. With OnlyFans I can choose what I want to do. I never felt pressured to do any more than I had to.’
Megan continued: ‘I learned my boundaries more in sex work than I ever did in acting – I learned what I am comfortable with, what I’m not comfortable with.
‘I also learned the value of my creative labour, which was a lot more than I was being paid in acting.’
Megan – who landed her first acting role at the age of 14 – also had roles in Silent Witness, Holby City and several short films.
In a new interview, Megan said she was sexualised on screen, earning £400 a week while filming explicit scenes with an actor almost double her age
While she went on to land more acting roles after Skins, with money tight and odd jobs not proving fruitful enough, Megan ended up entering the sex industry – first working as a stripper before creating her own racy content on OnlyFans
Yet the fickle industry meant her finances were unstable and she began working as a stripper at the age of 22 to support her while she auditioned.
Megan then joined OnlyFans in 2020 while she was working in a distillery in London on a zero-hour contract and her manager ‘refused to furlough her for a while’.
With only £300 in her bank account and no way to pay her rent, her friend Heaven – who co-hosts the podcast Strippers In The Attic – suggested OnlyFans as a way of earning an income.
Megan explained: ‘She was saying to me, “look there is already enough footage of you in like sexy content on the internet from Skins, but you’re just not making any money off of it anymore!”‘
In agreeance with her friend, Megan signed up for the site – where she sells full frontal naked photographs – and is a vocal ally of sex workers.
Yet she confessed she was initially ‘terrified’ about making the move, fearing that it could stop her from landing certain roles down the line.
Megan joined OnlyFans in 2020 while she was working in a distillery in London on a zero-hour contract and her manager ‘refused to furlough her for a while’
‘But in my eyes, I’d been really giving my everything to trying to make it as an actor and a writer for nearly a decade, and it just wasn’t happening,’ she continued.
‘And I see sex work as performance. It’s just another type of performative labour.’
Megan also pointed out the similarities between acting and the sex industry, stating: ‘There is so much in TV – we see how many actors do like nude scenes, sex scenes.
‘There’s loads of stuff in acting that is similar in sex work, but there’s still such a huge stigma about sex work.
‘I think if we are going to get anywhere with women’s rights and women having bodily autonomy, we have to agree that women can do what they choose to do with their body.’
On how sex work proved to be a ‘lifeline’ during her time in need, she continued: ‘Honestly it it changed my life.
‘Sex work has always been a bit of a lifeline to me when I had needed it to be – when I was younger I was stripping – I’m just so glad that I had the privilege of being able to do that.’
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