Bella Thorne has addressed the wave of condemnation she initiated with the recent launch of her OnlyFans page.
After Thorne started receiving headline attention for her $2 million haul, sex workers highlighted the litany of ensuing issues ranging from the lack of an accompanying call for decriminalization to the resulting news coverage's potential impact of erasing the years-long work of those in the industry who most deserve credit.
Meanwhile, director Sean Baker—who was alleged by Thorne in the press as being a collaborator on her OnlyFans research in anticipation of a new movie together—shared a statement on Friday explaining how that's not actually a thing.
In the statement, Baker said that news of him "making a film (documentary or fiction narrative)" about OnlyFans "and using Bella Thorne as research" is false.
"I'm NOT attached to this project," he said, adding that he's currently in development on two features that have nothing to do with OnlyFans or Thorne. Baker also clarified that he and Thorne did have "a conversation" about a potential collaboration, though any such possible project would have been "in the far future."
According to Baker, he urged Thorne and her team to speak with sex workers to ensure that her actions didn't end up hurting them or their industry.
In Thorne's subsequent response, she noticeably included no mention of Baker but did retroactively claim that she launched her OnlyFans as part of an effort to "remove the stigma" by attracting "more faces to the site to create more revenue for content creators."
Addressing the blowback further, Thorne spoke of normalization and conceded to harming sex workers.
"And in trying to do this I hurt you," she said, later adding "I'm truly sorry."
Thorne also addressed new policies on the site that are preventing prompt payment to creators. Many sex workers have argued that these new restrictions were put in place as a response to Thorne's $2 million haul, though OnlyFans has denied this.
The criticism surrounding Thorne's handling of all this, however, remains widespread. Some have urged Thorne to step up by donating her tips, perhaps to groups that advocate for sex workers' rights, while others have taken issue with the Babysitter: Killer Queen star for putting herself in what they have determined is an unfairly flattering light:
For a superior example of how to actually step up in support of sex workers, we must again point you to FKA twigs' recent efforts.
