The biggest strike by Hollywood actors in forty years began on Friday: a mobilization that has been ongoing since the beginning of May by more than 160,000 professionals and in addition to that of screenwriters. The video of the excited speech by actress Fran Drescher, president of the actors’ union SAG-AFTRA, during Thursday’s press conference, in which she, among other things, described as “disgusting” the actions of the representatives of the production companies, has been widely circulated on the Internet by cinema (the AMPTP). the negotiations on the collective agreement.
In addition to the animated sounds of the speech, the video went viral because the 65-year-old Drescher was one of the most popular actresses in the world in the 1990s thanks to her starring role on the sitcom “La Tata” (“The Nanny”). in the original). Before the events of the past few days, many of those watching her as young people knew nothing of her involvement as a union activist, much less her pivotal role in the crisis Hollywood has been going through in recent months. Some have pointed out that Drescher’s political involvement aligns very well with the ideas of the character who made her famous.
The Nanny series was written and produced by Fran Drescher herself and her then-husband Peter Marc Jacobson, which is why the protagonist had a lot in common with the actress. The story was about Francesca Cacace, an Italian-American woman who was born (like Drescher) in Queens, New York, of humble origins and possessed a witty and compelling personality. At the beginning of the series, Fran was hired by a wealthy and mysterious Broadway producer, Maxwell Sheffield, to be his three children’s nanny. In the original version, the protagonist was actually called Fran Fine and was not of Italian but of Jewish origin, just like Drescher. She received two Emmy nominations and two Golden Globe nominations for her role in Nanny Drescher.
Among the many things the character of Fran was loved for and is still remembered for today were the costumes: a fashion lover, she combined very short miniskirts, tight turtleneck sweaters, matching suits, waistcoats and in an imaginative and not very New York way jewelry and hairstyles. With the revival of the 1990s aesthetic and a general nostalgia among people in their 30s and 40s for the cultural products of their youth, the character of Tata has sparked renewed interest, which among other things has produced Drescher with the second-hand -Clothing e-commerce company thredUP to propose a collection inspired by Fran’s style and act as a testimonial for Dolce & Gabbana.
Drescher made her acting debut in 1977 in a small role in the film Saturday Night Fever, and both before and after Nanny’s success, she appeared in many films and other television products. She co-produced another highly autobiographical series, Happily Divorced, with her ex-husband Jacobson in 2011, which told the story of Fran Lovett, a flower girl who found out the man she was married to for 18 years was gay: what really happened between Drescher and Jacobson in 1999. In 2000, after several years of symptoms and misdiagnosis, Drescher was diagnosed with uterine cancer, which is why she underwent surgery: she reported on her experiences in the book “Cancer Schmancer” and founded a book of the same name Association to raise public health awareness.
Drescher has always been known for her support for unions and her anti-capitalist positions. The scene from an episode of Nanny is circulating again these days, in which Fran refuses to enter the hall of a luxury event with her employer because the waiters are protesting. “My mother has three rules,” she says in the scene: “Don’t touch anything in public restrooms, never pass through a picket line, and … what was the third?” Oh yeah, never wear musk oil in the zoo.’ In 2017, New York Magazine dubbed her “your new favorite anti-capitalist icon” in the title of an article for speaking out on social media so often during that period.
She became President of SAG-AFTRA in 2021, narrowly beating actor Matthew Modine (Full Metal Jacket, Stranger Things), with whom the tone in the competition was very heated: Drescher represented the historic Unite for Strength party, while Modine proposed a new one Party to lead movement, membership first. However, Drescher has always advocated acting as a united front in her union leadership and, surprisingly, last month she was also able to enlist the support of Membership First for the upcoming elections.
Drescher has been described as a respected and very solid leader over the past two years and has recently faced some criticism. In June, a thousand actors, including Maryl Streep, wrote a video discussing ongoing collective bargaining in what some felt was overly optimistic, in a letter expressing concern that the union was disregarding their intentions to strike . Recently, Drescher was accused of taking her union commitments lightly when a photo of her and Kim Kardashian at a Dolce & Gabbana party in Italy was released. Drescher had defended himself by saying that it was only about work and that the committee dealing with the contract negotiations had been informed about her commitment for a long time.
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