Fran Drescher Weighs In on Bob Iger’s Charm, ‘The Nanny’s Future and Her Own “Take No Sh**” Ethos
“I’m an unlikely labor leader,” Fran Drescher acknowledges on a late November evening.
Before this summer, Drescher long had been synonymous in the public imagination with her most iconic role, Fran Fine, in the popular ’90s CBS sitcom The Nanny, which she tailored to her comedic strengths, including her thick Queens accent. The sassy childcare worker to a posh New York family became inextricably linked with her persona, even after Drescher launched other sitcoms, started a cancer nonprofit and, eventually, was elected as the president of Hollywood’s largest union, SAG-AFTRA, in 2021.
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But her public profile took a dramatic turn after SAG-AFTRA called a strike in July, joining the Writers Guild of America in the first double work stoppage involving the two unions in more than 60 years. In the spotlight during the months that followed, Drescher carved out a new lane with her distinctive advocacy for her 160,000 members: at once fierce and combative (yes, she asked if Disney CEO Bob Iger was an “ignoramus”) and vulnerable, proudly bringing her heart-shaped plushie, which she calls “Love,” to labor negotiations with top Hollywood CEOs. Though some on the studio side grumbled, the approach did result in an end to the strike on Nov. 9 after the union’s negotiating committee — chaired by Drescher — approved a tentative deal.
With the 2023 strike finally behind her — on Dec. 5, more than 78 percent of voting SAG-AFTRA members ratified the union’s deal — Drescher opens up about those grueling CEO sessions, a Nanny reboot and her future.
You sat across the negotiating table from four top Hollywood studio chiefs. What surprised you most about each of them?
Bob was more charming than I gave him credit for. Donna [Langley] was demure. I saw she was trying to get a word in, and the three guys [Iger, Netflix’s Ted Sarandos and Warner Bros. Discovery’s David Zaslav] were not even aware of it. I was repulsed by what I was seeing. I actually was the one from across the table that said, “I’d like to hear what Donna has to say because none of you are letting her get a word in edgewise.” They were taken aback, [but then] everything stopped so she could speak. At the end of that, she thanked me. She’s not a girl from Queens like me — we don’t take no shit. Ted, interestingly enough, gets more aggressive in the room, but all the A-listers who work for him think that out of all [the CEOs], he’s the best one.
He’s doing his job well.
I guess so. Then David and I had a connection when we were kids. My first cousins and their dad, Stanley Drescher, had clocks made all over the town where the Zaslav kids lived. He remembers how every store you went into, there was a clock that said, “Relieve the pressure, insure with Drescher.” We talked about that. And one of [the CEOs], I don’t want to say who, wrote me when the strike ended and very graciously said, “It was a rough go. I’m glad it’s over. I learned a lot. You were the maestro and you won. Congratulations.”
What was it like to sit across from Bob Iger after you took him to task for saying that writers and actors were not being “realistic” in an interview, even asking if he was an “ignoramus”?
He was fine. In a sideline conversation, not with me, he did express that he didn’t appreciate the attitude that I had taken with regards to him. He regretted saying what he said. But having said that, he didn’t feel [my remarks were] necessary. Well, of course he didn’t feel that it was necessary, but it was necessary. Because what he said and what I said in my speech bookended what this whole thing was about in such a vivid way that it had to be underscored. Having said that, once we got into the room together, we were absolutely civil with each other. There were times when we all laughed about other things. There were moments when the guys would get a little heated, and I would have to bring it back to reality. I’ve said many times, “Dial it down, we’re not curing cancer.” Plus, that kind of male aggression doesn’t work on me.
You’ve said “the guys” would get a little heated. Is that on both sides — labor and management?
They all took turns, including the men in the [SAG-AFTRA] negotiating committee. I’ve never been confronted with so much aggressive male energy. And it made me sad [to think] that’s why the world is in the state that it’s in. If they could just step out of the way and let the mothers get into a room together, cook some food, share some family stories, exchange pictures, hold hands and really figure out how to get past this, the world could be saved.
How did you try to bring female energy into the room, and how was it received?
First of all, I didn’t mind having my little plushie toy. I’d always bring snacks. I eat very pristinely, so I needed my own organic blueberries, organic pecans, I had my coconut water, all that stuff, and everybody was welcome to have it if they wanted it. I always wanted to share stories. At one point, [an exec’s] mother became unwell and I said in one of the meetings, “How is your mother? You’re both in my prayers.” They said, “Oh, I didn’t realize we were going to talk about that.” It always surprises me. [People] don’t want to talk about their personal life in a business situation. I think it humanizes us and brings it back to a real place.
What was your lowest point during the negotiations?
There was a point when I felt like there was negativity coming at me from all sides. Even members in the union were losing confidence in the negotiating committee. It was a small group, but it shocked me, actually. And then the opposition hired a crisis PR firm from D.C. that grabbed at the lowest-hanging fruit to try to diminish the woman leader. As a Buddhist, I always ask myself, “Why is this being presented to me and how can I turn this into an opportunity?” And when all of that started coming at me, I realized I have a responsibility to women and girls as a woman leader. So I decided I’m going to do a video putting on makeup and getting ready to go to work. And I included my plushie toy in it. The message was, “I don’t have to emulate male energy. I can lead with intellect and empathy and morality and ethics. I could be totally me and still rock a red lip and carry a plushie toy and lead.” And that went viral. I turned a lemon into lemonade.
Are there other totems that people don’t know about?
Well, this is my Buddhist wisdom book [she holds up Offerings: Buddhist Wisdom for Every Day]. I brought this book in, too [she holds up The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse] to read from. It has a feeling like Winnie the Pooh: Each animal has a different life experience and wisdom, and the boy goes through the book a little lost, but by the end, as he collects these friends, he learns. Like this page says, “One of our greatest freedoms is how we react to things.” To me, that’s so wise. I’d read things like that to my negotiating committee as well.
Are there any particular labor leaders that you look to as models for your presidency at the union?
[Ford executive chairman] Bill Ford is Buddhist and he deals with his company in a different way from other industry leaders. I’ve heard him speak, and he said, “My workers know that I have their back and I know that they have mine.” So, I was watching closely to see how that all unfolded when the auto workers went on strike. And it wasn’t a surprise to me that Ford was one of the first, if not the first, to resolve the contract and give a 33 percent raise to the workers. I found that not only to be interesting in another sphere of industry, but also that it was happening at the same time as our strike at one point. Companies that practice conscious capitalism are inspiring to me because that is without question what we should be doing in the 21st century. I don’t have anything against money and the making of it, but when it’s at the expense of all things of true value by means of the environment, health, human beings, other life, then you’ve crossed a bridge that should never be crossed. And so that 20th century, old-school, the-bottom-line-is-the-bottom-line [ideology], it doesn’t pan out, and we’re paying a dear price for that unfortunate thoughtlessness.
As you were in the spotlight negotiating, Warner Bros. put The Nanny atop the Max carousel. What did you make of that move?
I don’t diss anyone for being smart and doing something that is useful or helpful to them while I’m in negotiations with them. I’m actually very happy that The Nanny is on Max.
Does a Nanny reboot interest you?
I can’t even think about doing a sitcom right now. I’m so exhausted by all this. But I never say never to anything. The show that I did is as popular today as it was 30 years ago. The fashion, the comedy, the look. So, it’s still very much alive and well. And during the strike, I wasn’t able to really push forward stuff about The Nanny, and that was kind of sad for me because normally I’m always doing stuff on social media to support the show. But there was so much that was taken from the show by people that became part of the strike.
What do you want to do next? Another sitcom? Politics maybe?
There are a lot of options, and there’s probably another book in me. I feel like there could be a future where maybe I could be a new type of Barbara Walters. And I’ll probably continue to do interesting parts in indie films. I was supposed to do two over the summer, and of course they got postponed. One was Rob Reiner’s This Is Spinal Tap 2, and one was an Adam Sandler-Ben Affleck movie. As far as a sitcom goes, I have to really think about that because it’s a big commitment and it’s a mountain I’ve climbed already a few times. And there are new mountains to climb.
You appear on an upcoming episode of the Property Brothers’ Celebrity IOU. How’d that go?
Well, I’d never swung a sledgehammer before, and everything hurt after that day. There was one point where they showed me their ideas for what they thought would look nice in the house, and I said, “I don’t really see that for them, especially the wife. She’s such a warm, earthy woman, and that feels very cold to me, very masculine, and I wouldn’t do that.” Well, the director was so happy that I did that. He said, “In all the episodes we’ve done, only one other person ever pushed back and said, ‘No, you’ve got to go a whole different way.’” I asked, “Who was that?” They said, “Gwyneth Paltrow.”
A version of this story first appeared in the Dec. 7 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.
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