American actress Fran Drescher made her screen debut with a small role in the iconic 1977 movie “Saturday Night Fever.” Little did she or the world know that she’d eventually become “The Nanny” in a hit TV show that skyrocketed her to fame. One of the things that made her Nanny character so unique was the nasal voice she used to play the role. The fact is, Drescher doesn’t really have a nasal sounding voice. She’s a gifted actress who has played in Broadway shows, for one thing. She was even a runner up in the Miss New York Teenager pageant in 1973.
But it was The Nanny and that iconic voice that won her international fame and recognition, so fans associate the voice with Fran Drescher herself. In one episode of the show, Drescher’s character is eating at a Chinese restaurant where she has wasabi sauce for the first time. She’s talking to her friend and dining companion when she takes a big bite of the wasabi with some very hot mustard. It was so powerful that it knocked her to the floor, prompting her to comically try to grab for a glass of water to wash it down. When she gets back up, she is suddenly speaking in a refined, sophisticated voice and says the following. “Gee, you know that mustard really clears up the nasal passages. I like it. I wonder how long it’s gonna last.”
Just as she said the last word, her nasal accent came back. You can hear the audience howling with laughter, completely unable to contain themselves in the background.
Source: YouTube
It’s hard to imagine Fran Drescher not speaking in her iconic nasal voice, but this clip shows that there’s a different side to her that’s more than her role in “The Nanny.” The last episode of this awesome sit-com aired on June 23, 1999, and fans still miss it. You can watch the video below.