by Jana Monji, AsAmNews Contributor
If you haven’t been following Fox’s The Cleaning Lady, you’re missing an intelligent, determined API female protagonist. Thony De La Rosa is a Filipino medical doctor who has overstayed her visa and is desperately trying to get her son specialized treatment unavailable in her country. To make ends meet, Thony now works as a cleaning lady alongside her sister-in-law Fiona (Martha Millan).
The dramatic series, which is based on a 2017 Argentinian TV series (La Chica Que Limpia), premiered on Fox while most of us were recovering from New Year’s celebrations (3 January 2022).
With all of the delays and confusion over film awards season, it was hard matching up schedules, but last week, Élodie Yung, spoke to me from France via Zoom. Yung was born in Paris, grew up in Seine-Saint-Denis and earned a law degree at the University of Paris. She originally planned to become a judge, but changed her mind and pursued an acting career.
While her early roles were in French for French television programs and films, US audiences will know her from the 2016 Daredevil (Season 2) and the 2017 The Defenders mini-series where she played Elektra Nachos. She was also recently involved in the Netflix adult animated anthology where she was a voice actor (also screen capture) for the episode Pop Squad.
On the day of the interview, Yung was in Paris, visiting her family who she hadn’t seen for two years due to COVID-19 travel restrictions. Her series has been totally filmed under COVID-19 protocols. There were masking and social distancing requirements. Then there was also testing, every three days. Yet she claims it never felt hard. She felt “really grateful to be working and being on a team.”
In The Cleaning Lady, her Cambodian-Filipina character once worked as a surgeon at one of Manila’s best hospitals, but her five-year-old son, Luca (played by twins Sebastien and Valentino LaSalle), developed a rare and life-threatening disorder. Luca lives in a protective bubble of plastic barriers and other hygienic precautions. While they came to the US legally, their visas have since expired. While Thony was working as part of a cleaning service alongside her sister-in-law Fiona, she witnesses a murder by a member of a powerful criminal cartel, Arman Morales (Adan Canto).
Instead of knocking her off, Morales offers her and her son protection in exchange for her services as a cleaner–now for crime scenes–and a doctor for criminals. But you have to wonder why?
When asked why she was attracted to this part, Yung said it was the depth of role. Married to British actor Jonathan Howard (Thor: The Dark World) with whom she has a child, Yung noted, “I’ve never had to play a mother who goes through so many things.”
That was probably the easy part. Yung spent time away from the set at parks, interacting with both Sebastien and Valentino because she wanted their connection to be “organic.” She said,
“I want to feel like I could be their mom so they can trust me on set,” she said. noted.
According to Yung, the pair have very different personalities off set.
Then there were some tricky parts. Yung had to learn to speak and act like a surgeon. First, there’s the medical lingo which is hard not only because English is Yung’s second language, but also because these are words that Yung hasn’t even used in her first language, French. So she drilled the words over and over again.
The same with the medical procedure she performs. The production team includes a nurse who was on hand.
“She would take me by the hand, step-by-step on everything I had to do,” Yung said. “I was guided by this professional until I was comfortable enough by the end to the fake surgery.”
Yung said the nurse found her accuracy “disturbingly” good.
Because she’s also playing a person of a slightly different ethnicity to her own, she’s had some coaching for the sake of authenticity.
“I didn’t study any culture, but spent a long time with Martha (Millan),” Yung said. “When it came to the way that I speak in the series, I am working with a coach.”
Although she is part Cambodian and is familiar with a Cambodian accent, she is French. Her English is “a mix between French and British accents.” Millan, who is Filipina, has provided other resources.
“When things come up and I had to speak a little Tagalog as well, we would call her parents,” Yung said.
The experience has made her interested in exploring her Cambodian heritage. While she speaks French, English and a little Spanish, she does not speak Cambodian.
“Going through this journey with my character, as reconnected me with my background,” Yung said.
She hopes that she’ll find time to learn Cambodian, but she also hopes to stay busy and take her character into a second season. The role has also made her interested in visiting the Philippines.
In Season 1, Thony has drifted into some morally gray areas. When asked to compare herself to her character, Yung said, “I just know Thony is doing the best she can. She’s very brave. I don’t know if I’m as brave as her.”
Unlike Thony, Yung has never been tested under such extreme circumstances.
“She’s very resilient. I know that I have that, but it hasn’t been tested by life at that level,” Yung said.
She won’t say whether she thinks Thony is, at this point, a bad person.
“I like to approach my characters in a different way. I like to meet them; I don’t judge them,” she said.
If there’s another season, Yung doesn’t know what will happen, “but I want to be surprised; it keeps me on my toes.” She says she trusts the creator and showrunner of the show.
The finale of Season 1, Episode 10 (The Crown) airs tonight (Monday) at 9 p.m. (8 p.m. Central) on Fox and the episode will be available on Hulu Tuesday. In the last episode, Thony was separated from Luca while trying to cross the border with fake passports. Yung promises heartbreak and fans will have to wait and see if Fox renews The Cleaning Lady for a second season.
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