Fran Drescher on “The Nanny” and Her Cancer Activism

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR: Let us turn now to the Actress Fran Drescher. She is best known for playing the iconic Fran Fine in the ’90s hit sitcom “The Nanny.” Now she’s back on our TV screens with the new comedy show “Indebted,” about two parents who move in with their son after blowing their life savings. Along with her comedy career, Drescher focuses her time on a nonprofit organization called Cancer Schmancer, which was founded in 2007, after she herself was diagnosed with uterine cancer. She talks to our contributor Ana Cabrera about advocating for health care and about her own harrowing sexual assault.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANA CABRERA: Let’s start with this new prime-time show of yours, “Indebted.” Tell us about it.

(CROSSTALK)

FRAN DRESCHER, ACTRESS: Well, it’s a charming show about a loving family. Baby boomer couple goes bust and has to move in with their millennial son and his young family.

CABRERA: And you’re the baby boomer mom?

DRESCHER: Yes, of course. And so that’s kind of the premise of the show. And it’s a little bit of a role reversal, because the parents are a little more of the adolescent and the son is more of the parent. So it’s, who is the parent and who is the kid? And it’s, I think, a very interesting way to show the typical middle-aged couple. The parent and grandparent, the matriarch of the family is very loving, but very immature. And —

CABRERA: And there’s three generations to take a look at.

DRESCHER: Yes, wears great clothes, loves spending money, loves giving away money, to a fault.

(LAUGHTER)

DRESCHER: And —

CABRERA: Well, we have a clip, so hold your thought.

DRESCHER: OK.

CABRERA: And we will discuss on the other side.

DRESCHER: OK, great.

CABRERA: Let’s show it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, “INDEBTED”)

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: I can’t believe all of this time you have had no money.

UNIDENTIFIED ACTRESS: Yes, you should have just told us the truth.

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: Remember how you lied to us about being gay for so long?

(LAUGHTER)

UNIDENTIFIED ACTRESS: You mean when I was in the closet?

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: Yes. Now, why didn’t you just tell us?

UNIDENTIFIED ACTRESS: Because I was uncomfortable and scared and confused.

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: Exactly, like us.

(LAUGHTER)

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: And so now we’re coming out as broke.

(LAUGHTER)

DRESCHER: We’re here, we’re broke, get used to it.

(LAUGHTER)

UNIDENTIFIED ACTRESS: This is not the same situation.

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: Everything is going to be fine. We’re going to downsize and sell the house before we lose it.

DRESCHER: Yes, we’re hoping Dave will renovate our house as beautifully as he did yours, and then we can sell it for double. You’re insanely talented. Everyone’s talking about it.

(LAUGHTER)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: Do you have as much fun playing that character as it looks like?

(LAUGHTER)

DRESCHER: I do. I really enjoy it. I love playing immature people. I love playing light-hearted, loving people. I really — we laugh all the time on the set. And we’re in gratitude that we have a job where we can be so — you know, have so much fun.

CABRERA: With a show like “Indebted,” is the goal just to make people laugh, to sort of be cathartic and escape from reality, or is it really to help people reflect on their own realities and their relationships and family dynamics?

DRESCHER: Well, in all of the shows that I ever produced, like “The Nanny,” I always like to have a global message. And the global message of “The Nanny” was, it doesn’t matter what you look like or what you sound like; it’s what’s in your heart that counts. And every episode had to somehow speak to that global message. And when we did “Happily Divorced,” that global message was that everybody has a right to live an authentic life. And so every episode kind of spoke to that, even subtly. It gives you a goalpost of what you’re writing towards. In this show, because I’m not the writer or creator of it, which I haven’t actually done that in over a quarter-of-a-century, so it’s a little bit of a new experience, and, frankly, a little bit challenging, because, obviously, I have my own ideas and opinions about things, but I do try and talk to my writer/producers and get them to ground it in some kind of real feelings and emotions. And I think that it’s important, because, when you’re sitting at home, I love to make people laugh. I think that is really medicinal. I want people to have an escape. I think that television is visual eye candy, and we have to satisfy that on every different level. But then on some — you know, there has to be a little bit of depth. And, for me, this is a family that is learning to live together. And with every time that we try and build ourselves up, so that we can move out and get back to our own independent lives, and fail, or the hope of that begins to fade, we’re back to once again trying to figure out how we’re all going to live together.

CABRERA: You’re obviously still the nanny we all fell in love with in the ’90s. And I understand there may be “The Nanny” coming to Broadway?

DRESCHER: Yes, “The Nanny” musical. And I’m so relieved that I have an opportunity now to talk about it in a limited way, but, you know, we have been sort of keeping it a secret for a while, until we closed deals with our music team and our director and our lead producers. And so Peter and I are really thrilled to see this new kind of manifestation of the series.

CABRERA: You have such a unique voice, right?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, “THE NANNY”)

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: May I see your resume, please?

DRESCHER: Oh, yes, sure.

(LAUGHTER)

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: Crayon?

DRESCHER: Lipstick.

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: Of course. And what a lovely shade.

(LAUGHTER)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: And that’s part of what makes you stand out. It makes you so memorable. Did you always embrace it?

DRESCHER: Well, when I was first starting out in the business, I was advised to try and correct my speech, so that I could play more of a variety of roles. And I actually did take some lessons to learn how to speak differently. But then I kind of lost my sense of humor. And, at some point, I just made peace with the fact that I will be playing different people in different life situations that all are funneled through this big persona that is Fran Drescher. And that’s OK with me. I really — more than having diverse characters, I would rather diversify my talents by being a writer, a producer, a director.

CABRERA: You mentioned that you and Peter are working on this production of “The Nanny” for Broadway. Peter Marc Jacobson was your first husband. You were married for about 20 years.

DRESCHER: Yes.

CABRERA: And at the time, while you were married, you were co-creators and co-writers of “The Nanny,” which was obviously such a hit.

DRESCHER: Right.

CABRERA: What is that like being married to your co-creator, your business partner? What was that like?

DRESCHER: Well, you know, I think that — I don’t know what it would really be like today, but, then, I think we both didn’t know ourselves as well and needed to figure things out. I wouldn’t recommend it, really, because it consumed our lives. And we had to kind of try and make rules not to always be talking about the show. If we were in bed, if we were eating, you know, it was like we just took the show with us through every facet of our life. And that became too all-consuming, and I think unhealthy for the relationship. But, you know, there were other things. I think that, because we had met when we were 15 and became very co-dependent, rather than experience independence at that tender age, when you’re supposed to be backpacking through Europe, going away to college, learning who you are, dating different people. We never did that. We met when we were 15, we became best friends, we fell in love, we became high school sweethearts, and that was basically it. By 21, we were already married. So, as romantic a notion as marrying your high school sweetheart may be, I really wouldn’t recommend that either, unless you take that break to figure out who you are, so, when you come together, you understand that, you know, you need to make room for the other burn to blossom. You need to give the other person space to grow. And we really didn’t understand that at all. I very easily can become very absorbed in the man I love’s energy. And I see this with my parents. My mom is very, very nurturing to my dad and takes very good care of him, but almost to a fault. I don’t think she takes care of herself as well as she takes care of him. And I’m always the one that’s trying to get her to realize that that’s not in her best interest. But she’s a ’50s gal. She cooks, he eats. You know, it’s kind of that simple.

CABRERA: That wasn’t necessarily what was going on, though, for you in your relationship?

(CROSSTALK)

DRESCHER: — happening in reverse. I was becoming a big star, and I had a big appetite for travel, for culture. I wanted to learn art collecting. I wanted to get involved in politics. I wanted to do a lot of things. I wanted to meet interesting people. And I think that Peter was a little threatened by all that if it didn’t include him. He didn’t really give me a lot of room to grow on my own separate and apart from him. And, later on, years later, because now I very affectionately regard him as my gay ex-husband, he had realized that he was trying to control his true orientation, and that kind of spilled over into controlling me as well. And that became a little bit suffocating for me, which, ultimately, you know, made me realize that I have to get out to find who I am, because he won’t let me do it within the relationship.

CABRERA: And it was after you divorced that he came out as gay, as I understand it, right?

DRESCHER: Yes.

CABRERA: How did that come about?

DRESCHER: During the relationship, he went into therapy because, you know, we had been victims of a violent crime, him, me and my girlfriend one night. And it was a very ill-fated night.

CABRERA: You have spoken publicly about this. You were raped.

DRESCHER: Yes. And I have written about it too.

CABRERA: At gunpoint in a home invasion situation.

DRESCHER: Yes, from — by a man we didn’t know and his brother. And he was on parole. So it’s very disheartening to think that he was incarcerated, and then he was let go, and then he went on a rampage. And I was, you know, not the only woman that he had raped. My girlfriend was there and she was raped, too, while Peter was tied up and blindfolded. But I ended up, because I have a photographic memory, helping the police do these — the artist sketch of what he looked like. And based off of that, they were able to apprehend him. And I have at least the closure, which a lot of women, sadly, do not have. But I do, that, you know, he’s locked away now for good, and will never do that again, and I don’t have to think I see him every time I turn a corner.

CABRERA: I can only imagine sort of the lasting pain that that causes for somebody to be assaulted in such a violent way. I know it took you 10 years to publicly speak about what happened, right? Why did it take so long?

DRESCHER: Well, I think what happened was, I had written about it in the book “Enter Whining.” I wasn’t really famous. It wasn’t like anybody was that interested in what was going on in the life and times of Fran Drescher, not until “The Nanny.” When I did “The Nanny,” I wrote what became “The New York Times” bestseller “Enter Whining.” In that book, I wrote a chapter called “Bad Things Happen to Good People.” And I cannot tell you how many women have asked me to sign that chapter, because it means a lot to them that somebody like me could show that, you know, life can go on, you can somehow put yourself back together and create a new normal. You’re never the same person that you were before that experience, but, I mean, it informs every aspect of my life and always will. But talking about it, turning your pain into purpose, is very healing and helps to, you know, help other people, too. And the things that happened to me, I feel like — I feel an obligation to talk about it publicly because I feel like I got famous first, and then, you know, had a platform to influence other people for the greater good.

CABRERA: You are also a cancer survivor. As I understand it, it took eight doctors and two years..

DRESCHER: Yes, get a proper diagnosis.

CABRERA: — to determine that you had uterine cancer?

DRESCHER: Yes. I was misdiagnosed, because I was actually too young and too thin for the average woman who gets uterine cancer. But 25 percent, or one in four of us, are young and thin, so it seems to me that, you know, doctor number one, who said I was too young for an endometrial biopsy, should have just given it to me. It’s a simple two-minute test that she could have done in her office. But doctors tend to be bludgeoned by big business health insurance to go the least expensive route of diagnostic testing. And many of them subscribe to the philosophy, if you hear hooves galloping, don’t look for a zebra, it’s probably a horse. So, for all intents and purposes, it seemed like I was perimenopausal, because I was kind of at the right age for that. But, truth be told, I wasn’t. I had cancer, and I was being mistreated for a perimenopausal condition that I didn’t have. And I started to realize that there are many grave illnesses that, at the earliest, most curable stage, what I call the whisper stage, mimics far more benign illnesses. So if you happen to be dealing with a doctor who isn’t trying to rule out the zebra because they’re so convinced it’s got to be a horse, then you’re going to slip through the cracks. And I was lucky, because, even after two years and eight doctors, I was still in stage one, because uterine cancer happens to be very slow-growing. I always say to people, save your Christmas club account for tests that insurance won’t pay for, because the best gift you can give your friends and family is a long and healthy life.

CABRERA: And I know that that’s the mission of your Cancer Schmancer foundation is to help raise awareness of that whole —

DRESCHER: And, you see, there was — immediately after the cancer, silver linings started to kick in, because I was still in this mode after the rape that I had to be the strong one and not really give into my pain. I — it was hard for me even to share it with my parents. I had to have my sister tell them, because I never wanted to cause them stress. It was so hard for me to tell them. I had her tell them. And then, over the years, between the rape and the cancer — and, frankly I think part of the cancer was because I held in the pain from the rape, so it’s almost poetic that I should get a gynecologic cancer, of all things. But by the time I had the cancer, I had already been in therapy, very serious therapy.

CABRERA: Right.

DRESCHER: And I decided that, should anything bad ever happen to me again, I’m going to handle it completely different. I’m going to talk about it. I’m going to ask people for help. I’m going to pick up that phone and have the courage to call my parents, no matter how heartbreaking it’s going to be for them.

CABRERA: It’s OK to be vulnerable.

DRESCHER: I’m not going to pick up cigarettes again. I did that after the rape. I had quit smoking. That night, I started smoking again. And I thought, what am I doing? I’m hurting myself even more, and using it as an excuse. But, over the course of those, you know, 10 years, I had really grown a lot as a human being. And so the cancer was my opportunity to ask for help. It was my opportunity to learn how to become a more well-rounded woman, to be more inclusive, to say to somebody, you know, I need help.

CABRERA: Yes.

DRESCHER: I need you to carry me. I can’t do this alone. I never was able to say that ever.

CABRERA: And I think so many women feel that way. You have to carry it all on your shoulders. You don’t want to come across as weak. So, you’re giving everybody out there permission. Thank you for being very authentic and real with us.

DRESCHER: My pleasure.

CABRERA: It’s a pleasure to talk with you, Fran Drescher. Really appreciate it. Thank you.

DRESCHER: Thank you. Thank you.