Raising Our Voices: A Conversation With 'The Cleaning Lady' Star Élodie Yung | THR Video
Élodie Yung, star of FOX's 'The Cleaning Lady' spoke to The Hollywood Reporter about how she infused her personal background into her on-screen character.
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00:00 I want to relate to the humanity of our characters.
00:02 I just love when I'm like, "Oh, I can relate to her pain."
00:07 Or, "Oh my gosh, I relate to this joy."
00:10 I want that.
00:11 Hi, my name is Elodie Jung,
00:18 and I play Tony de la Rosa in The Cleaning Lady.
00:21 To me, Tony is, she's a survivor,
00:26 a mother who really does what she can to provide for her family.
00:32 Look, if I can make myself useful, I can protect us all.
00:36 Then what?
00:36 She's like you and me.
00:37 She is vulnerable and she's strong at the same time.
00:40 She's resilient.
00:42 She has to go through so much.
00:43 It's something that is really close to home for me.
00:47 My dad is Cambodian,
00:48 and his parents and his grandparents,
00:50 they all died during the genocide.
00:52 He is literally a survivor.
00:54 And I grew up knowing my parents have had to fight
00:57 and literally survive things.
00:59 From them, unconsciously, consciously,
01:02 they've passed on this, "Okay, let's have a good life.
01:04 Let's fight for a good life."
01:06 That's something that my mom taught me.
01:08 Enjoy life. Just go and enjoy, you know?
01:10 With the little things that they had, they were grateful
01:14 because they went through so much.
01:15 And it's because of you.
01:18 Yeah, it's because of us.
01:19 I have to stay grounded and I have to dig in.
01:23 And I do tap in those experiences that have been passed on,
01:27 in those qualities that I have seen around me,
01:31 that I have experienced myself.
01:33 Because she's human, I have to put myself into her shoes
01:37 and portray what she's going through and her feelings.
01:40 You didn't have to save me, Fi.
01:43 He was always gonna be your hero.
01:44 That's what he wanted to be for you.
01:46 I was supposed to save him.
01:48 I got this part, and then it was written
01:50 for a Filipino character.
01:51 And they're like, "We would love to embrace
01:54 some of your roots, your background."
01:56 And this is actually the first time that I've portrayed
02:00 someone with a Cambodian background.
02:01 And so I felt very proud and kind of surprised
02:05 that actually they wanted to embrace that.
02:07 I felt very happy, excited.
02:09 I called them, "Okay, let's change the name then
02:11 because we need to find a Cambodian name."
02:13 I gave them a list.
02:15 And then on top of this list is one of my good aunts.
02:18 Her name is Tony, and she's so proud.
02:20 Tony, whatever business you still have with these people,
02:22 it can't keep coming around our family.
02:24 My business with these people is almost done.
02:26 Her cultural background, her Buddhism, for example,
02:30 it's peppered throughout the show.
02:32 Little touches like that, the way we mourn our people.
02:36 You mourn in white, you don't mourn in black.
02:38 And it's subtle.
02:39 Whether it's the Cambodian community
02:41 or the Filipina community, people are grateful
02:44 and thankful that finally we have this character,
02:48 the leader of a network, a TV show,
02:50 who is of that descent, who has this background.
02:54 And what I love about our show,
02:56 and I wanna make sure we keep that,
02:59 is the relationship the audience has to this character.
03:03 They can relate to her,
03:04 a woman who's going through so much.
03:06 I think as storyteller, whether we are in a fictional thing
03:11 or a very grounded material, as an audience member
03:15 and as an actor, I just love when I'm like,
03:18 oh, I can relate to her struggle.
03:21 Yeah, people are very, very grateful for that.
03:23 And I am too.
03:24 (upbeat music)
03:27 (upbeat music)
03:30 you