The stage is different, and so is the tone. But the voice was unmistakable.
Fran Drescher, the owner of a distinctive nasal, Queens-inflected accent, made her name in Hollywood for her starring role in the sitcom “The Nanny.” On Thursday, he faced dozens of cameras as the president of the actors’ union that voted unanimously on the day to strike, delivering a passionate argument that illustrated the stakes of the decision.
“The eyes of the world and especially the eyes of labor are on us,” said Ms. Drescher. “What is happening to us is important. What is happening to us is happening in all fields of work.”
He clenched his fists in anger. “I was shocked at the way we were treated by the people we did business with!” he continued. “Disgusting. Shame on them!”
Ms. Drescher is the latest in a long line of familiar faces — Ronald Reagan, Patty Duke and Charlton Heston among them — to run SAG-AFTRA, the union that represents thousands of screen actors. But it amounts to a surprising plot twist in his long career.
As Thursday’s news conference made clear, he is now a leading face of a resurgent labor movement across the country. How he handles it in the coming weeks, and possibly, months could help determine the fate of 160,000 actors.
The actors’ strike, which takes effect Friday, is a crisis point for Hollywood, which has been rocked in recent years by the pandemic and sweeping changes in technology with the rise of streaming and continued declines in cable television and the box office. coming back Hollywood writers have been on strike for months, and now with the actors — the first time since 1960 that they’ve both gone on strike — the industry is bound to grind to a halt.
Ms. Drescher, 65, spent decades acting in Hollywood, both in television and film. Since starring in “The Nanny” in the 1990s, by far her best-known role, she has appeared sporadically in television and feature films. He recently starred in a short-lived sitcom for NBC called “Owner,” which ran for 12 episodes before it was canceled in 2020.
He has long voiced concerns about corporate greed, captioning photos with slogans like “STOP CAPITALIST GREED NOW.” It was enough for New York Magazine to put one headline in a 2017 blog post“Your New Favorite Anti-Capitalist Icon Is Fran Drescher.”
A few years later, in 2021, Ms. Drescher in the guild’s presidential election in a hotly contested race against actor Matthew Modine. They represent different factions: Ms. Drescher for founding the Unite for Strength Party, and Mr. Modine for an upstart group, Membership First.
The race became so bitter that Mr. Modine accused Ms. Drescher of spreading lies about him and news said, “I’m ashamed of Fran Drescher, I’m disappointed. But he will be judged by the people of the world after he is gone, or by whatever God he worships.”
Unlike screenwriters, who have gone on strike many times over the decades and have historically been unionized, actors have been better known for their intramural strife. Hollywood has been bracing for a writers’ strike since the beginning of the year — but few senior executives and producers were ready for the actors to have the determination to do so.
When Ms. sat down Drescher in power he promised to unite the union and to end to the “dysfunctional division in this union.”
When the actors agreed to the strike authorization, it had 97.9 percent of the vote — an impressive figure that even surpassed the significant writers’ strike authorization. Last month, Membership First, the opposition party, promoted The re-election of Ms. Drescher.
However, some of his public statements and actions in recent weeks have confused many actors.
In late June, a few days before the actors’ contract expired, Ms. Drescher and the union’s lead negotiator, Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, released a video that struck many viewers as surprisingly heightened given the high stakes of the negotiations.
“I just want to assure you that we are having very productive negotiations that are laser-focused on all the important issues that you told us are most important to you,” he said, wearing a military jacket. “We stand firm, and we will reach an important deal!”
A few days later, more than 1,000 actors, including Meryl Streep and Jennifer Lawrence, signed a letter expressing concerns to union leadership that they were not considering agreeing to strike. “We hope that, on our behalf, you will meet that moment and not miss it,” the letter said.
Ms. Drescher – surprisingly, given his position – added his signature to the letter.
On Monday, a few days before the actors’ contract expired, Ms. Drescher’s attention is elsewhere: She’s attending a couture Dolce & Gabbana fashion show in Puglia, Italy, where she’s posing for photos with Kim Kardashian. With her 362 million Instagram followers, Ms. Kardashian about Ms. Drescher: “To my fashion icon! Always on my mood board! I love this girl so much!”
The backlash was quick and swift. “General Hospital” actress Nancy Lee Grahn asked if the photo was a joke. “I hope it’s not true. Not allowed. No one could be this stupid,” she said wrote on Twitter.
In a statement, a spokesperson for the actors’ union said Ms. Drescher works as a “brand ambassador” for Dolce and Gabbana, and the commitment is “fully known to the negotiating committee.” Mr. Crabtree-Ireland called the criticism of Ms. Drescher at the fashion show that was “appalling” and “disgusting.”
Ms. emphasized Drescher the issue at Thursday’s news conference. “It’s full-time work,” he said, adding that he continues to talk to negotiators from other countries. “I’m in hair and makeup three hours a day, walking in heels on cobblestones. Doing things like that, which is work. It’s not fun.”
While Mr. Crabtree-Ireland spoke at the news conference from a teleprompter, Ms. Drescher spoke off the cuff.
“Wake up and smell the coffee,” he said of the studios. “We ask for respect! You can’t live without us!”
“They’re standing on the wrong side of history at this very moment,” he continued, pointing his finger pointedly at the camera banks. “We stand united in unprecedented unity. Our union, our sister unions, and unions around the world, stand by us.”