- - Fran Drescher's Wild Second Act: After Divorce, Cancer and Being Underestimated, She's Having a Major Moment (Exclusive)

Gillian TellingJanuary 7, 2026 at 6:30 PM

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Fran Drescher is opening up about her wild Hollywood ride and new role in Marty Supreme in the latest PEOPLE cover story

She gets candid about always being underestimated because of her looks — and her famous voice

She says people are still obsessed with the '90s sitcom, The Nanny, and she loves that younger stars like Sabrina Carpenter think Nanny Fine is a fashion icon

If you see Fran Drescher out and about, know that she has absolutely no problem with people coming up to her to say how much they love both her and The Nanny, the hit sitcom she co-created and starred on from 1993 to 1999.

“I feel very blessed by it!” she tells PEOPLE of being approached by fans every day. “People are still obsessed with that show...They're mad for it!" She even has a theory as to why it's still so popular.

"A lot of the millennials were kids when they first watched it," the now-68-year-old says. "Then they grew up, and are realizing how great it was on levels they didn't recognize when they were younger. The clothes, the jokes, the gay humor, the sexual tension, all of that kind of went over their heads. But back when it was airing, they used to have Nanny nights at the gay bars where everyone would go watch it together."

Michael Schwartz

Fran Drescher photographed for PEOPLE on December 13, 2025 in New York City

She says she loves that her fans still see her, and she sees them too. "I talk to the people who come up to me, I’m right there with them, and they get that. I’m very what-you-see-is-what-you-get.”

One thing she doesn’t love? Being underestimated, which she says is something she’s faced often — for being a woman, for her Queens, New York accent, for being the "pretty girl with the funny voice."

Michael Schwartz

Fran Drescher photographed for PEOPLE on December 13, 2025 in New York City

Most recently, as the president of the SAG-AFTRA union in 2023, she successfully led a strike against the big studios and streaming giants. “They thought, ‘Oh yeah, the Nanny, we’ll wipe the floor with her in two minutes,’ ” she says. “But they never saw me coming!”

Now costarring in the Golden Globe-nominated film Marty Supreme as Timothée Chalamet’s mom and enjoying a massive resurgence in popularity thanks to new generations discovering The Nanny on streaming and through social media clips (and stars like Sabrina Carpenter and Rosalía re-wearing Nanny Fine outfits), Drescher puts it best: “You can’t stop me!”

Michael Schwartz

Fran Drescher PEOPLE cover

Drescher has always been an unstoppable force, even when she was just a child growing up in Flushing, Queens, who loved watching I Love Lucy reruns.

“I could do that,” she recalls telling her mom one day. “I could do physical comedy, make funny faces, wear pretty dresses,” she says. In high school, she had her heart set on stardom and got into the school theater scene.

“I went on auditions, and I got a McDonald’s commercial and a root beer commercial,” she says. “Neither of which they would let me speak in. Even my high school theater teacher said, ‘If you’re going to make it, you need to get rid of that voice!’ "

Easier said than done.

She took elocution lessons, where she was taught to speak “low and slow.” But during an audition for a period piece, the casting director told her manager, “ ‘She speaks very slowly for an 18-hour miniseries.’ I was like, ‘You know what? I’m a pretty girl with a funny voice who can do comedy. That’s my sweet spot. Let’s just call it what it is.’ ”

She adds, "I was never going to have Meryl Streep's career. And I didn't need to be able to do a bunch of accents. I could play a variety of emotions based on the women who come from where I come from."

Now she's thrilled to be playing Chalamet's mother in Marty Supreme, where she's dressed down and sans makeup — a far cry from her fabulously stylish Nanny Fine days.

“I was delighted to be cast as his mom,” Drescher says of the film. “He’s very nice and very talented, so I'm thrilled for him and all of his success. But it’s not like he wanted to be my best friend." She jokes, "Even though I was open to it!"

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Sandra Bernhard and Fran Drescher in 'Marty Supreme'

She landed the role in part because of the strike. She'd been set to play Adam Sandler's girlfriend in a [Marty Supreme director] Josh Safdie movie that got shelved during the strike, and she says Safdie kept calling her to find out what the latest was with all the negotiations.

"It made us friends, because I always took his call," she says. "And then Marty Supreme was his next movie that was lined up, and Josh felt like me and Timmy kind of looked 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.' You have to love a director like that. It's always the good ones."

John Nacion/Shutterstock

Fran Drescher SAG-AFTRA Strike Picket Line, New York, Aug. 3, 2023

She adds that being back in the spotlight has been amazing — especially because she wondered if she'd ever work again.

"It's very nice for me, because I went up against the kings of our industry, and if there was ever a blacklist out there, baby, my name would have been on it," she says. "I thought I might never work again. I also thought, if that's the case, I'll always do something else. I'm a writer. But in fact, this has kind of elevated me, so I don't really have that fear anymore."

Michael Schwartz

Fran Drescher photographed for PEOPLE on December 13, 2025 in New York City

She adds, "I may not get the leads in films, we'll see. But that's okay, because I don't need to work so hard anymore, to be carrying something. That's a lot of work. And I like my play time!"

For more on Fran Drescher, pick up the new issue of PEOPLE on stands Friday. Marty Supreme is in theaters now.

on People

Original Article on Source

Source: “AOL Entertainment”