Fran Drescher on the ‘Healthier’ Hair Dye She Swears by and Her Best Anti-Aging Makeup Trick

Fran Drescher, who doesn’t look like she’s aged a minute past The Nanny, is every bit as charismatic on Zoom as she was on my TV screen as a kid. At 62 years old, the actress says she feels good in her own skin, which she’s currently covering in Laura Geller products thanks to a recent collaboration drawing attention to beauty for women over 40. As a fan of Fran—I think I watched Beautician and the Beast 100 times when it came out—I was excited to pick her brain about her famous sitcom, her favorite products and so much more.

When you look back at your years on The Nanny, are there any significant moments that stick out to you?

“Every time we would get a pick-up, every time we had to come up with a new season of stories, it was kind of a hurdle that you have to jump as the series matures. But I think the most important global message of the show was that it doesn’t matter what you look like or what you sound like, it’s what in your heart that counts.
It all was instigated by my tenacious personality who ran into the head of the network on a plane and decided to really work the room so to speak, and get him to give me a pitch meeting when we got back to the United States. One thing led to another, but that was me living through a life lesson that I tough myself years before when I didn’t carpe diem. I think that when you really push yourself to seize an opportunity and not get in your way or have self-doubts, or think maybe I’m being inappropriate or whatever, or I could never do that, amazing things can happen. We knew we had caught lightning in a bottle when we did the pilot. It was like the whole audience was so with us, right from the beginning. Peter and I were thinking, wow this is working. It was an anomaly always.
I was also always really loud and proud about being a Jewish character, which really wasn’t something you saw on TV. To be outwardly Jewish as a character and be played by a Jewish actor in a lead role in prime time really hadn’t been done since Molly Goldberg did it in 1948. When we started it there was a note from a potential sponsor that they wanted to buy the show outright if the character was written Italian and not Jewish, and I said no. We couldn’t write it as well, as rich with specificity, because we’re not Italian. I also wanted it to have what my style of acting was, which is very nuanced and specific—not broad—which required me to play a character that was very close to myself and the people I grew up with.”

I have to ask, was that all your real hair on the show?
“
No way! In the very beginning in the first season, it was my hair, but it was getting too abused. I said, you know, we need to get into some pieces, which kind of opened up a new world because not only did it save my own hair, but then we got into wigs and different hair colors and different lengths, and it became an extension of her wardrobe and style.”

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Photo credit: Rafael Ortega