The stage was different, as was the sound. But the voice was unmistakable.
Fran Drescher, who has a distinctly nasal Queens-esque accent, made her name in Hollywood for starring in the sitcom The Nanny. Appearing before dozens of cameras on Thursday as the president of the actors’ union, which voted unanimously to go on strike earlier in the day, she delivered a heated argument outlining what is at stake.
“The eyes of the world and especially the eyes of workers are on us,” said Ms. Drescher. “What happens to us is important. What happens to us happens in all areas of work.”
She shook her fists indignantly. “I’m shocked at the way the people we’ve done business with are treating us!” she continued. “It’s disgusting. Shame on her!”
Ms. Drescher is the latest in a long line of well-known faces — including Ronald Reagan, Patty Duke and Charlton Heston — to head SAG-AFTRA, the union that represents tens of thousands of film actors. But it comes as a surprising turn in her long career.
As Thursday’s press conference made clear, she is now a leading figure in a nationwide resurgent labor movement. How she handles it in the coming weeks and possibly months could decide the fate of 160,000 actors.
The actors’ strike, which will take effect Friday, marks a crisis point for Hollywood, which has already been rocked by the pandemic and sweeping technological changes in recent years, with the rise of streaming and the steady decline in cable TV and box office returns. Hollywood writers have been on strike for months, and with actors joining them – the first time both have gone on strike at the same time since 1960 – the industry will come to a virtual standstill.
Ms. Drescher, 65, has acted in Hollywood for decades, both on television and in film. She has appeared in television and feature films sporadically since her starring role in The Nanny in the 1990s, by far her most prominent role. Most recently, she starred in a short-lived sitcom for NBC called Indebted, which ran for 12 episodes before being canceled in 2020.
She has long expressed concern about corporate greed, captioning photos with slogans such as “STOP THE CAPITALIST GREED NOW.” Suffice it for New York Magazine to headline a 2017 blog post: “Your new favorite anti-capitalism icon is Fran Drescher.”
A few years later, in 2021, Ms. Drescher won guild president election in a hard-fought race against actor Matthew Modine. They represented different factions: Ms. Drescher for the established Unite for Strength Party and Mr. Modine for an emerging group, Membership First.
The race became so acrimonious that Mr Modine accused Ms Drescher of spreading untruths about him, reportedly saying: “I am ashamed of Fran Drescher, I am disappointed.” But she will be judged by the people of the world after her death become, or by the god she worships.”
Unlike screenwriters, who have gone on strike many times over the decades and have historically been united, actors are better known for their internal squabbles. Hollywood has been bracing for a writers’ strike since the beginning of the year — but few executives and producers were prepared for actors making the decision to go through with the strike.
When Ms Drescher came to power, she vowed to bring the union together and end the “dysfunctional split in this union”.
When the actors agreed to strike permission, they voted 97.9 percent of the vote—an impressive number that eclipsed even the writers’ significant strike permission. Last month, the opposition Membership First party backed Ms. Drescher’s re-election bid.
Still, some of her public statements and actions have left many actors confused over the past few weeks.
In late June, days before the actors’ contract expired, Ms Drescher and union negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland released a video that many viewers found surprisingly optimistic given the high risks of the negotiations.
“I just want to assure you that we are having extremely productive negotiations focused on all the crucial issues that you have told us are most important to you,” she said, wearing a military jacket. “We remain strong and will strike a landmark deal!”
Just days later, more than 1,000 actors, including Meryl Streep and Jennifer Lawrence, signed a letter expressing concern to union leaders at their failure to heed their readiness to strike. “We hope that you will experience this moment on our behalf and do not miss it,” the letter reads.
Oddly enough given her position, Mrs. Drescher added her signature to the letter.
On Monday, days before the actors’ contract expired, Ms. Drescher drew attention on another front: she attended a Dolce & Gabbana couture fashion show in Puglia, Italy, where she posed for photos with Kim Kardashian. Referring to her 362 million Instagram followers, Ms. Kardashian said of Ms. Drescher: “To my fashion icon! Always on my mood board! I really love this woman!”
The backlash came swiftly and swiftly. “General Hospital” actress Nancy Lee Grahn asked if the photo was a joke. “I hope that’s not true. That can not be. Nobody could be that stupid,” she said wrote on twitter.
In a statement, a spokeswoman for the actors’ union said that Ms Drescher works as a “brand ambassador” for Dolce and Gabbana and that the engagement was “fully aware of the negotiating committee”. Mr Crabtree-Ireland called the criticism of Ms Drescher’s appearance at the fashion show “outrageous” and “despicable”.
Ms. Drescher addressed the topic at the press conference on Thursday. “It was absolute work,” she said, adding that she continued to communicate with negotiators from abroad. “I wore hair and makeup three hours a day and walked the cobblestones in high heels. Doing that is work. No fun.”
While Mr. Crabtree-Ireland spoke via a teleprompter at the press conference, Ms. Drescher spoke off the cuff.
“Wake up and smell the coffee,” she said of the studios. “We demand respect! You cannot exist without us!”
“You’re on the wrong side of history right now,” she continued, jabbing her finger at the camera benches vigorously. “We stand in solidarity with unprecedented unity. Our union, our sister unions and unions around the world stand with us.”