Jessie Cave is a 38-year–old actress and comedian based in the UK. She’s best known for her portrayal of Lavender Brown in the Harry Potter franchise. The actress joined OnlyFans in March of this year, with the stated goal of earning £8,000 to fix severe electrical problems in her house.
Whenever a celebrity joins OnlyFans, fans subscribe with the hope that they’ll bare all for a few bucks. For actresses like Cave, whose fans were teens and adolescents, there’s often a sense of parasocial entitlement. Fans feel as though they’re getting to have private chats with the centerfold they had hidden under their mattress in high school. They see a beloved actress on a site known for adult content and think they can custom order some homemade porn.
Posting any adult content online comes with risks. For people with an already raised profile, the risks compound. Not only is there a risk of being taken less seriously as a professional and losing roles as a result, but crazed fans can become dangerous. Even for people who aren’t famous, stalking is always a risk of producing content online.
Famous people who take to OnlyFans often have strict boundaries in the type of fan interactions they’ll entertain. Cave charges £4.30 per month for niche hair content on OnlyFans. It’s important to note that her content is SFW; she’s not taking custom requests for the adult content that’s made the platform a household name. The most outlandish thing you’ll see? Cave spanking herself with her long braids.
She says the choice to remain tame on OnlyFans is causing her to “hemorrhage” subscribers. Her most recent stunt, in which she doused her locks with strawberry milk while wearing a green dress, wasn’t quite as well-received as she’d hoped.
While tame OnlyFans accounts offer a lifeline for celebrities, fans still expect something a little saucier than they’d get on Instagram. According to Cave, one of her videos performed surprisingly well because her black tights were sheer and she was wearing nude-colored underwear.
With their livelihood on the line, will celebrities turn up the heat on OnlyFans?