Fran Drescher Slams 'Tone-Deaf' Studios Amid SAG-AFTRA Strike (Exclusive)

“Extra’s” Billy Bush went one-on-one with SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher as she visited the picket lines in Los Angeles.

Fran helped break the news on Thursday that the actors were going on strike after the union and Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers failed to reach a deal on Wednesday.

The “Nanny” alum made an impassioned speech during the announcement, and told Billy, “That was coming from my heart. I think that in leadership the more authentic you can be and the more you can speak plainly to people, the more impactful it is, so I had nothing prepared. I knew what I felt in my heart and I just said it and we were coming out of a situation where I felt you know very saddened and disappointed by the energy that we received from the opposition and I really naively thought that they wanted to make a deal with us but actually they just want to continue to squeeze us out of our livelihood.”

She continued, “As you know we in earnest extended by 12 days which is unprecedented, we had to convince all of our members who were ready to strike to let us stay in it, maybe we could avert a strike but they really closed their doors they didn't come out, they canceled meetings again. I thought, ‘Wow maybe they're figuring it out and something really good is going to come out of it, bupkis came out of it and I think that we were duped into giving them another week so they could promote their summer movies and the things they say and the things that they do are just not in support of the people that are the centerpiece of this industry.”

She went on, “Without performers I don't know what they think they're doing but we are their partners and we're being treated disrespectfully and dishonorably… working people and they're being squeezed out of their livelihood and nobody at the top is thinking about this. They're living high on the hog and they are completely out of touch and tone deaf and this unfortunately really had to happen.”

Drescher went on, “We're appealing to the viewers who are our fans and who appreciate the work that we do — especially during Covid when they had nowhere else to go – to think about where they spend their hard-earned dollars and what companies they are supporting because we stand here on the front lines because we get people like you Billy to hear what we have to say, but we are speaking on behalf of workers across this nation we are not unique this is not just happening to us it's happening to other industries. The eyes of the nation and the eyes of the world are upon us waiting to see what we're going to be able to do because the good fight that we're fighting is not just for us it's for workers everywhere that are being squeezed out of their livelihood by big business greed.”

Explaining the greatest point of division with the studios, she said, “I think that the entire industry model has changed with the advent of streaming and there's trying to have us negotiate a contract that was developed in 1960 that in many ways doesn't reflect in the least what the business model is now. You can't change the business model and not expect to update the contract so it reflects the business model.”

Fran added, “Longevity of series no longer exists. It is all about subscriptions and that's a pocket that they don't want us to get into and then there's other things all kinds of not even money obvious things that they should have just given us but they're trying to squeeze us and they have a very egregious bad attitude they're doing bad things to good people, saying things, ‘It's like well with the DGA, with the WGA you know if you have to… if some people have to lose the house well that's a necessary evil.’ It's like, ‘What? Who are you people?’”

She explained, “I've been in this industry for decades and I never anticipated this kind of a reaction and it's like what are we dealing with land barons from medieval times and we're treated like serfs? I'm sorry but somewhere along the line somebody has to say the jig is up.”