Fran Drescher on Surviving Cancer, Why She Divorced Her Soulmate & 'The Nanny’s Lasting Legacy

Even the high school teacher said, you know, if you want to have a serious career, you got to get rid of that voice. My mom said at a very young age, I was watching all of Lucy reruns. And I said to my mom, I can do that. I did Dad's Root Beer and a McDonald's commercial, neither of which they let me speak in. I went to a woman and she tried to teach me what she called low, slow flow. I auditioned for Winds of War and my manager at the time was very eager to find out how I did with my low, slow flow voice. And the casting director said, you know, she spoke very slow and it's only an 18-hour miniseries. So I said, you know what, I'm a comedian and it's like a pretty girl with a funny voice that can do comedy. That's my sweet spot. Let's just call it what it is. I'm not going to have Meryl Streep's career, but I can play all different emotions of women close to where I come from in the world. I had done a short-lived series with Twiggy and Joey Haggerty. Didn't go anywhere. I did a pilot after that. Didn't go anywhere. And there I was by myself on TWA and I'm thinking, oh my God, that's the president of CBS, Jeff Zaganski. Well, I just worked for him. And I said, Jeff, and he said, Fran, and I thought, thank you, Lord, and I ran into the bathroom to put some makeup on. And I'm thinking as I'm patting my face, because I saw it as an opportunity that I was not going to get in my way. I was just going to push that door open because it was, you know, I mean, opportunity knocks every day. If you have the, you know, like the tenacity and the chutzpah to recognize it and then do something about it on the spot. Do it. Just do it. Don't get in your way. And so I said, oh, I can't bother him on the plane. He's a big, important man. No. So when I came out, I guess he, you know, he kind of said, you know, I'm sorry that last pilot didn't get picked up. And, you know, there's a lot of things coming down the pike and we'll find something else for you. And I said to him, you won't find anything that's going to fit me hand in glove unless you hear me, let me pitch to you with Peter, who eventually became my gay ex-husband but still writing partner. But I said, we know my brand of comedy and you got to let us pitch. And nine and a half hours later he said, okay, when we all get back to L.A., call my office and I'll set you up with the head of comedy development and I'll let you pitch. And it was like, I didn't have the idea when I was talking to him on the plane. But I was visiting Twiggy, I did that short-lived series with, and her and her husband were working so I ended up with their 12-year-old daughter schlepping her all over London with me so I would have a companion to go touring with. And she all of a sudden says, I found my new shoes are hurting me. And I'm thinking, why is she telling me? Does she want me to take her home? Because I'm not ready yet. So I said, oh honey, just step on the backs of them. And she said innocently, won't that break them? And I said, break them in. I just couldn't get this unorthodox relationship between an adult and a child out of my head because I wasn't telling her what was good for her. I was telling her what was good for me. I didn't want to sacrifice my afternoon for her. I wanted her to break her shoes so I could keep touring London. So I called Peter. I already told him I ran into Jeff and he said that we could pitch something. So I said, I think I have the idea. What do you think about a spin on The Sound of Music? Only instead of Julie Andrews, I come to the door. And he thought for only a moment, he's got a very good sense for these things, and he said, that's it. That's the show we're going to pitch to CBS. The minute you get home, we'll flesh it out, we'll develop it a little more. And that's what we went in with. We got what they call a log line. They green-lighted it right there. Hi, I'm Fran Fine. Do come in. Oh, boy, do you have gorgeous tchotchkes. People that are, you know, like, mad for it and, I mean, just obsessed on it weren't even alive when we were shooting it, and it was airing initially on CBS. We were right on the cusp of social media, and everything, the Internet, you know, the whole dot-com era exploded while we were shooting The Nanny. And those people, those families that were watching it from 93 to 96, then, you know, the kids grew up and just found, started to understand how great it was on levels that they didn't cognize when they were kids. Then, suddenly, it's like, the clothes, the jokes, the, like, gay humor, the sexual tension, all of that kind of went over their head. But they just liked this, you know, immature, funny nanny that kind of treated the kids like equals and yet would be treated like a kid herself by her boss. You know, it operated on many different levels. I'm madly in love with Peter. We're so tight. We talk a few times a day. We're writing, always writing together, and we're in each other's business, and we're family. My family says, you're still married, you just don't seem to know it. We are soulmates, so soulmates really can't ever, they're like magnets. And we just had to figure out how to be happily divorced. And we so are. You know, we travel together now, and, you know, we're just, my family is his family. We feel very blessed that we cherish each other the way we do. But I'm a Buddhist, or a Buju, if you want to call it that. I'm always trying to think about why this is being presented to me on my journey of self-refinement. How can I take this experience and grow through it to be better than I was before? You're not supposed to be married to everybody just because you love them. And you learn that the hard way very often. And we put a lot on our mate that we don't so much put on our friends. So sometimes, you know, that feeling that you had way back in the beginning that got all messed up in a marriage that probably shouldn't have been, you can kind of, you know, rekindle that if you just pare it down to much simpler expectations. And we're good with that. Being with a friend with benefit is easy. So that's not, that's easy. But sometimes it's, you know, okay. It's not what I want to do. Though I can do it easily and whenever I want. And that's comforting. Because I guess I have Peter. I think he's a bit of a c*** block. I take him to everything. And I don't really care. It's okay. You know, I have a gay ex-husband. Live with it. I've been with him since I was 15. Who can compete with that? Over the years, he grew tremendously. He's not the same person. Neither one of us are who we were when we were married. Starting up with someone new takes a lot of work. And, you know what else? Selfishly, I don't want to compromise. I don't want to negotiate everything. What we eat for dinner. Which movie are we going to see? What are we going to lay in bed and watch on TV? You know, it's like, that's what it is when you're with somebody. Or you do a lot of sacrificing. I always did a lot of sacrificing. I'm a nurturer by nature. But the more you live on your own, the less you want to do that. And the less you need it if you happen to have a gay ex-husband. As a cancer survivor, I started the Cancer Schmancer Movement dedicated to early detection and prevention. I ended up being diagnosed with uterine cancer. Uterine cancer typically hits women that are postmenopausal or obese. I was ultimately diagnosed at 42. So if it started around, maybe around 40, maybe earlier. I was not postmenopausal and I was not obese. So, I slipped between the cracks. Mine was in stage one, which means it was resting on the uterine lining, but it hadn't penetrated it. It hadn't started to dig in. So I was very lucky. Although I was at that point with a man 16 years my junior, who for the first time in my life I want to have his kid. My destiny was that that wasn't ever going to happen. I mean, the HRT woman was convincing me I had like five minutes of fertility left and we should definitely freeze an embryo. But then, it very quickly turned into cancer and that option was off the table. It's hard for any woman to have that surgery, but I think for one that had never had children like myself, it's a particularly good ability to swallow. This is the SAG-AFTRA negotiating team and we are in the negotiating room ready, willing, and able to negotiate with the ANPTP. But, as you can see, they are nowhere to be found because they have walked away from the negotiation. When I was on strike, I did not anticipate that I was the low-hanging fruit for the opposition to discredit. Why? Because I'm a woman leader and they get these nasty PR people that represent the bad guys in Washington, D.C., and right away they're trying to make me out to be like incompetent. And my staff at the union said, you know, because then I'm getting flooded with the press asking for me to comment. And I was being advised by my staff at the union, say, no comment. We're not going to comment. And I said, I'll be goddamned if I'm not going to comment. And I turned it on them by doing a self-tape of me putting on makeup, as millions of women do, on their way to work every day. And while I'm putting on my makeup, I'm talking right into the lens and I'm saying, I don't have to emulate male energy to lead. I can lead with wisdom, empathy, intellect, and I can still rock a red lip. That went viral. It was four of the hardest years of my life. And I did it very well. There's no bones about it. But I came in for COVID, which was very difficult because the industry stopped. And then when it started up again, those people that weren't vaccinated weren't allowed to work, and I'm their president too, and you know, trying to sort that out. And then the contract happened and we went on strike and ultimately got the best deal in our history, a billion dollar deal. So I'm very proud about that, but it was unbearable. What's in a few weeks? World Championship. So where's that going to be? Tokyo. Tokyo, Japan? You're asking me if Tokyo's in Japan? I feel very lucky coming off of the union work that you know, this movie is so hot and so right there in everybody's face and I'm on the poster. It's very nice for me because I went up against the kings of our industry. And you know, if there was a blacklist out there that had one name on it, maybe and I thought, I may never work again. And if that's the case, you know, I'll always do something. I'm a writer you know, and I can always do something. You can't stop me! And what do you plan to do if this whole dream of yours doesn't work out? It doesn't even enter my consciousness. Maybe it should. I'm fans of everyone in the movie and love Josh Safdie as a director. Josh felt like me and Timmy kind of look alike and he said, I know your background and I know there's a depth to you that I want to extract for this movie. I know you've got that in you. Very nice guy. Very, very talented. I've always been a big fan of his. I like everything that he does. I was delighted to be cast as his mom. It's not like he wanted to be my best friend or anything, though I was open to it, but it's fine. It's fine. He's like a you know, a young lad living the dream and I'm very happy for him. Well deserved. I'm very what you see is what you get and when I talk to people, I'm not above them. I'm right with them and they get that. They feel it. I am authentic in how I present myself. I make sure of that and I never want to be anything else. There are people that will say to me, how you feel, Fran? You doing okay? Because they know I had cancer 25 years ago. They worry about me. It's just so dear and I feel very, very lucky. Very lucky.