Producer, director, writer, and actress Fran Drescher has been at it for quite some time, though you may not know it. Her career started way back in the ‘70s (in 1977 to be exact) and again, you may not know it, but she has been in some well-known movies and TV series.
Though she’s fallen out of the acting limelight in recent years, there’s still work and the actress has been involved in things off-screen.
Fran Drescher, President of SAG-AFTRA, led a campaign against the use of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GAI) in filmmaking. She believes that corporate greed and advancing technology are a “deadly cocktail” undermining artists. Drescher’s main concerns revolved around fair compensation and consent for the use of actors’ likenesses, especially through deepfake technology.
Drescher worries that AI’s ability to generate scripts and replicate actors’ likenesses without their knowledge or consent poses a significant threat to the industry.
She emphasized the importance of compensating and obtaining consent from actors, as their likeness, gestures, voices, and acting are the essence of the industry. She sees the unauthorized use of actors’ likenesses as a dystopian threat to their livelihoods.
Drescher criticized studio CEOs for being “tone deaf” to the needs of talent and calls for a shift towards a more employee-friendly culture. She believes that the industry’s business model has evolved with streaming but that contracts for talent have not adapted accordingly.
Ultimately, Drescher’s advocacy aimed to improve working conditions and compensation for SAG-AFTRA members. Ultimately, the lengthy writers strike came to an end with Drescher helping to lead the way.
In recent years, Fran Drescher has slowed a bit on the acting front. She pulled down a few roles in Gravesend, Broad City and Alone Together. A couple of years ago, she starred in the series Indebted. But that lasted only one season.
Seven years after Fran Drescher had an operation for uterine cancer, she began the Cancer Schmancer Movement. It was, and still is, a non-profit organization dedicated to ensuring that all women’s cancers be diagnosed in Stage 1, its most curable stage. She also wrote a book, titled Cancer Schmancer, which chronicled her battles with cancer.Now in her 60s, Fran Drescher is also an advocate of LGBTQ rights. In fact, she became an ordained minister just so she could legally officiate LGBTQ weddings.
And she still stays active on Instagram. On the social media platform, Fran Drescher has more than 1.5 million followers and still posts regularly. She can be found just posting about regular life, wishing fellow Hollywooders good luck on projects, or promoting some of her initiatives.“So, are you as good in bed as you are on the dance floor?” Fran Drescher’s first foray into the movie business was a part of the 1977 John Travolta disco dancing flick, Saturday Night Fever.
It wasn’t a big role, but it was a memorable one, as she played Connie, delivering that classic line as one of the many trying to get into Travolta’s character’s, Tony Manero, pants.
Her first step into Hollywood may have been a small one, but it was a step in the right direction.
