Fran Drescher may have been “The Nanny” in another life. But as the president of SAG-AFTRA, she turned the tables on Hollywood’s power crowd. Drescher last year emerged as an unlikely labor leader and champion of the little guy.
Best known for her zany 1990s sitcom character with the thick Queens, N.Y., accent, Drescher became one of the most powerful people in Los Angeles by holding firm, despite pressure and personal attacks, until her 160,000-member performers union won its most generous deal in decades.
The contract brought an estimated $1 billion in gains for members over three years. In an industry shaped over the decades by bombastic and hard-charging men, Drescher embraced her idiosyncratic and unabashedly female style. She offered spiritual teachings and brought a Jellycat plush toy to the negotiating table, positioning the small, smiling white heart at her place opposite Walt Disney Co.
Chief Executive Bob Iger to remind the CEOs that they, too, could lead with heart. “Whatever I do, I don’t do halfway,” Drescher, 66, told The Times. “I bring my own sense of self, my Buddhist wisdom and a lot of chutzpah.
” Initially, entertainment executives anticipated last year’s labor tensions would follow a predictable pattern: Screenwriters, represented by the Writers Guild of America, would strike but eventually lose momentum and turn on one another, creating internal fractures that would prompt union leaders to cave and accept a mediocre deal. The studio chi.
