SKINS star Megan Prescott has slammed the coming-of-age show over its creepy sex scenes and paltry pay – claiming it pales in comparison to her work on OnlyFans.
The actress, 34, played Katie ‘f***ing’ Fitch in series three and four of the hit E4 drama between the ages of 16 and 18.
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Megan Prescott is a hit on OnlyFans 18 years on from her Skins debutCredit: Supplied
She played Katie Fitch on the E4 show in series three and fourCredit: E4
She was sexualised on the show, for which she was paid £400 a week, romping on-screen with an actor almost double her age.
Though the programme gave her her big break and she has no regrets at being a part of it, she admits the stigma around her wild child character’s antics stopped her getting roles afterwards.
Speaking to Cosmopolitan magazine, Megan said: “People think we made a lot more money than we actually did in Skins. We worked it out by the hour once, and it was minimum wage.
“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.”
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Skins star Megan Prescott performing as a stripper at ‘virtual strip club’
The role forced her out of her comfort zone as a self-proclaimed shy teen who had only had boyfriends her own age to pretending to be a promiscuous tearaway.
There were no intimacy coordinators back then and, while Megan doesn’t suggest any wrongdoing took place on set, she said the planning around explicit scenes was lacking.
‘I’m treated better on OnlyFans than I was on Skins,” she said.
“No one had the language of ‘Are you comfortable? Do you want to talk about how this scene is going to go?’”
When acting work dried up, Megan turned to stripping to support herself having grown exasperated by zero hour contracts and pulling pints at Wetherspoons.
She said her time in the strip club brought more clarity than the acting industry as she knew exactly what was expected of her, whereas there was ambiguity during her time on set, as well as no burly security guard on standby in case things took an unexpected and unwelcome turn.
Megan still harbours acting ambitions, using her OnlyFans income to fund her writing and various projects.
She wishes the platform had been around during her acting days so she could have wrestled back control of the way she was sexualised and profited from it while her profile was at its peak.
“We see it with child stars all the time,” she explained. “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.”
After the coronavirus pandemic crippled the arts industry and shut bars and clubs, Megan relied on the platform to pay the bills.
She previously told The Sun: “I had zero money and was told by a friend who has worked as a stripper for years that people were guaranteed to subscribe because they had watched me in Skins.
Megan worked as a stripper before signing up to the content platformCredit: Instagram
Megan wishes the site was around during her Skins days
“I thought I may as well try and it went very well. I only do what I’m comfortable with and log on when I want to because it takes a lot out of you.
“It’s not as emotionally draining as it was working at a strip club because you don’t have to become nocturnal, bargain with people over prices and people are shockingly polite.”
She continued: “They are much kinder than people are in real life. On Instagram, I have some incel (involuntary celibate) ‘friends’ who write horrendous things just to provoke a reaction.
“It’s really fun to ignore them because you know they are desperate for attention and I’ve been using it to inform my writing.
“I’m in a much more privileged position than some others in the sex industry but for me, it takes away the stress of paying bills and allows me to have the energy to be creative.”
And she’s paying back by changing perceptions around sex work as a National Ugly Mugs trustee – a charity that provides services for people working in the sex industry.
She even used her own experience in the industry as the basis of her one-woman show Really Good Exposure, which proved a hit at the Edinburgh Fringe and in London’s Soho Theatre.
