Fran Drescher is opening up about her decision not to run for president of SAG-AFTRA this term, after being at the helm of the actors union since 2021.
At the Los Angeles premiere of Spinal Tap II: The End Continues on Tuesday — which sees the actress reprise her role of Bobbi Flekman from the 1984 original — Drescher told The Hollywood Reporter that over “four tumultuous years, I did some really heavy lifting. I think I’m going to leave a great legacy, and I think that the union is in fantastic shape, far better than when I showed up.”
“You’ve gotta know when to get in, and you’ve gotta know when to get out, and I think that I’m on a high right now and it’s in a good place,” she continued. “I’m ready to do other things.”
Drescher led the union through the 2023 actors strike that ground Hollywood to a halt for months, becoming a spokesperson for Hollywood labor during its fight for AI protections and compensation in the streaming era. With The Nanny actress opting not to run this year, another celebrity, Lord of the Rings and Rudy star Sean Astin, and a rank-and-file performer, New England Local board member Chuck Slavin, are battling it out for the president job.
As for her Spinal Tap return, Drescher — who will also appear in Marty Supreme later this year — said when she heard a sequel was happening 41 years later, “All of my friends were saying, ‘You’re going to be in it, aren’t you?’ And I said, ‘No one’s called me yet.’ And all of a sudden Rob Reiner called me and I said, ‘Of course I’d love to be in it.’”
And of the film’s cultural impact, she revealed, “Chris Martin, Bruce Springsteen — these are people that came up to me to tell me how great I was in Spinal Tap because it really became a music, bands, touring video to watch. You didn’t take a tour on the bus without Spinal Tap, you just had to.”
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