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Fran Drescher<\/strong> stood in front of a battery of cameras on Thursday to announce a cataclysmic, game-changing event for the entertainment industry: The actors guild was going on strike<\/a>. Drescher, formerly best known as The Nanny, was there in her capacity as the president of SAG-AFTRA, which represents about 160,000 performers. In that moment, she also became an unlikely leader at the forefront of America\u2019s labor movement.<\/p>\n Conjuring up characters like Norma Rae\u2014and Howard \u201cI\u2019m mad as hell and I\u2019m not going to take this anymore\u201d Beale in Network<\/em>\u2014Drescher gave a fiery speech<\/a> that laid out the shifting Hollywood backdrop that had led to this historic moment. \u201cWe are being victimized by a very greedy entity,\u201d she said, railing against the studios and streamers represented by the AMPTP. She noted that they plead poverty in negotiations while \u201cgiving hundreds of millions of dollars to their CEOs. It is disgusting. Shame on them. They stand on the wrong side of history, at this very moment.\u201d<\/p>\n Actors are often seen as privileged creatures, but Drescher made clear that her guild is not just full of stars, but workers. \u201cWe stand in solidarity in unprecedented unity, our union and our sister unions, and the unions around the world are standing by us as well as other labor unions. Because at some point, the jig is up. You cannot keep being dwindled and marginalized, and disrespected and dishonored,\u201d she said, in tones that ranged from tremulous to outraged. \u201cThis is a moment of history that is a moment of truth. If we don\u2019t stand tall right now, we are all going to be in trouble.\u201d<\/p>\n The vehemence of Drescher\u2019s speech stunned and thrilled many in Hollywood. \u201cWay to crush it, @frandrescher! United we stand,\u201d Elijah Wood<\/strong> tweeted<\/a>, while Elizabeth McGovern<\/strong> wrote<\/a>, \u201cGo Fran! In solidarity with the writers we fight for humanity in the entertainment business.\u201d Kim Cattrall<\/strong> tweeted a photo<\/a> of herself and Drescher clasping hands, with the words, \u201cWe stand in solidarity.\u201d Teamsters leader Lindsay Dougherty<\/strong><\/a> voiced<\/a> her support: \u201cFran MF Drescher brought the heat, facts and some real rage against the MACHINES energy. @Teamsters are with you and all @sagaftra members! No one wants a strike, but the stakes are too high and Hollywood workers deserve so much better. #BadBitchesUnited.\u201d Even writers who are currently on strike with the Writers Guild weighed in with excitement. David Simon,<\/strong> creator of The Wire<\/em>, commented<\/a>, \u201cJust watched Fran Drescher chew the #AMPTP\u2019s face off. After her credulous remarks in the run-up to today, I\u2019ll confess I thought she was a lost ball in tall grass. But now, if I hadn\u2019t cut the streaming service, I\u2019d download all seasons of The Nanny.\u201d<\/p>\n Drescher\u2019s new status as labor hero is a surprise twist, especially because\u2014as Simon alluded\u2014she\u2019d caused concern among SAG-AFTRA and WGA members with some of her statements in the last few months. Most notably, in a video released just days before SAG\u2019s contract was set to expire on June 30, Drescher and SAG-AFTRA chief negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland<\/strong> boasted<\/a> that they were having \u201cextremely productive negotiations.\u201d Drescher\u2019s singsongy, cheerful tone rubbed many the wrong way. \u201cIt was very rah-rah cheerful, and I don\u2019t think that is the right message,\u201d one SAG-AFTRA member told<\/a> Vanity Fair<\/em> at the time. Concerned that their guild was preparing to take a mediocre deal, a large cluster of prominent actors signed a letter urging the leadership to remain tough<\/a>.<\/p>\n There was further dismayed chatter when Kim Kardashian<\/strong> posted<\/a> a photo of herself and Drescher posing at a Dolce & Gabbana promotional event in Italy just days before the guild contract was set to expire. \u201cIt\u2019s not a good look,\u201d one actor told me last week. Crabtree-Ireland passionately stood up for Drescher at the strike press conference, pointing out that Fran was doing her job as a brand ambassador for the fashion line. \u201cShe was doing a job that she was under contract to do\u2014while, by the way, she was zooming into our negotiations after working 18 hours or more a day.\u201d<\/p>\n Even her ascension to the SAG-AFTRA presidency was embattled. She ran as part of the Unite for Strength party in a bruising race against Matthew Modine,<\/strong> who positioned himself as more of a firebrand with the Membership First faction. Although she won the election, some members remained critical of her capacities.<\/p>\n When I interviewed<\/a> Drescher last year, she told me that as a little girl in Queens, she dreamed of being a politician, as well as a writer, a hairdresser, and actor. \u201cI kind of ended up being them all in different ways,\u201d she said. She spent years playing tiny parts in television and movies (shout out to the legendary Bobbi Flekman in This Is Spinal Tap<\/em>!) before she waylaid the president of CBS on a plane in 1991 and sold him on her idea of a television show about a nanny. The network wanted her to play an Italian character, but she insisted that it needed to be a Queens-accented Jewish character played by a real Jewish actor, which broke ground on network television. Her character regularly dropped Yiddish words on prime time\u2014something Drescher echoed when she complained<\/a> at the strike announcement, \u201cWhat we ultimately received from [the studios] is what my mom would call a lek and a schmeck,\u201d which translates to \u201ca lick and a sniff.\u201d<\/p>\n Turning perceived liabilities into strengths has always been Drescher\u2019s great skill. \u201cI have this widow\u2019s peak,\u201d she told me last year, pulling back her curtain of black hair, \u201cand when I was a little girl, I thought I looked like Eddie Munster. Then my grandmother said to me, \u2018Why? It\u2019s so beautiful. It makes you have a heart-shaped face.\u2019 After that, I liked it.\u201d<\/p>\n In the years after The Nanny<\/em> ended, Drescher created the nonprofit Cancer Schmancer, inspired by her own uterine cancer, and helped convince Congress to pass the Gynecologic Cancer Education and Awareness Act, which became law in 2007. She also served as a US State Department public diplomacy envoy for health, traveling the world to advocate for women\u2019s health and cancer prevention. She\u2019s always felt the need to \u201cfigure out better ways, refine what exists, not accept what is,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd quite frankly, that sort of saved my life with uterine cancer, because I went to eight doctors over two years who were all essentially telling me there was nothing wrong with me, and so I just kept trying to find answers.\u201d<\/p>\n When I asked Drescher last year why she\u2019d decided to be a guild leader, she told me, \u201cAll of the Zen masters say don\u2019t try and swim upstream, just let life come to you. When this came to me as an opportunity to run, I really thought, This seems to be an amalgam of many of my strengths and accomplishments coming to a point in this one defining moment.\u201d She said of SAG-AFTRA, \u201cWe\u2019re a large collective. And as a large group, we can matter. I think we should matter.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n