Martha Millan On How Fox’s ‘The Cleaning Lady’ Breaks Barriers For Cambodian, Filipino Leads

Fox’s new drama, ‘The Cleaning Lady,’’ is the network’s first to be produced by and star Southeast Asian actors whose characters are the center of the story and not the best friend in the background. The mob drama series, which show creators Melissa Carter (Queen Sugar) and Miranda Kwok (The 100) have described as a woman-centric “Breaking Bad,” tells the story of Cambodian surgeon Thony De La Rosa (played by Frnech-Cambodian actor Elodie Yung), who travels to the United States to have a  live-saving treatment for her son. Her husband winds up with visa issues, so the doctor is on her own in the United States – and she stays even though she also winds up with visa issues.

The drama kicks into hyper drive when  de La Rosa becomes an undocumented worker so she can stay in the states and secure her son’s surgery. She’ll do anything for  her child and so, she becomes  a cleaning lady who quite by accident winds up working for a crime syndicate. Of course, being a doctor, she is quite familiar with how to deal with indelicate cleanups.

The show hits lots of demographics, but for Martha Millan, who portrays De la Rosa’s sister-in-law Fiona, the casting of Southeast Asian leads and the show’s overall diversity is to be applauded.

“Fox is actually putting a Southeast Asian woman at the forefront as a lead and then on top of that, the diversity that it represents is groundbreaking,” says Millan, who has also been seen in ‘the O.A.’ and ‘Succession.’ “Adan Canto is Mexican, I’m Filipino, Elodie is French Cambodian. All the writers, the creators, they are representative of what the world is.”

The showrunners already changed the story by taking it from its native Argentine roots and making it an American show, and then by casting Villan and others. It’s  representation that comes swift on the heels of a year where Stop Asian Hate, unfortunately, had to become a hashtag. Because of this, Millan, who lives in New York City, lauds the diversity even more. Her character is complex and so are the others. 

As Kwok tweeted last year: “Being able to tell a story that emboldens and elevates marginalized voices and people is a dream come true.” 

Moreover, just about anyone can relate to the story of a mother trying to save her son.

“I think that’s why this show is groundbreaking in that way, that it allows you just to kind of bring up the conversation of what would happen if you were in their shoes,” Millan says. “The issues are all about family. You take away all the labels– being undocumented- [and it’s all about] what can you do for your family to give better opportunities? To save your son’s life?” 

Millan secured the gig at the outset of the pandemic but production was initially delayed for obvious reasons.

“I auditioned in my bathroom,” she says. “We had to be creative at that time. I live in New York, so there was so much noise outside and, [I] brought my blue screen and everything.”

The noise Millan refers to is the hospital that’s a few blocks from her house. It made the news frequently in early 2020 due to Covid-related deaths. 

She was excited to get the role because opportunities for Asians, she said, at one time were “slim pickings.” 

“When I first started, I was just Asian,” says Millan, who has appeared on Entourage and Succession. “I wasn’t specific, and sometimes I wasn’t Asian enough. Then, I was too Asian. There were so many narrow points of views of how I can represent myself. So at that time, I was just very fortunate that most of the shows that I was able to book really allowed for that diversity. I guess it is, again, a testament to these shows who have so much success because of their thought process in how the world is.”

While Millan waited for details on filming and editing ‘The Cleaning Lady,’ she kept herself busy in the height of Covid-19 by hosting online acting workshops for teens around the world. She wound up being inspired by the novices.

“I discovered it was so important for children to connect on all levels… expressing themselves creatively,” she says of her kids, who included Americans but also welcomes teens from as far away as Brazil and Australia. “It was all about finding confidence. It was finding a way to connect these children together. I have to say I was kind of put in my place, because these kids were just so open to expressing themselves, especially when they’re just shut down.”

As for starring in a January drama with weekly releases, Millan believes the story will secure fans of appointment tv. She brought up ‘Ted Lasso’s’ weekly drops as an example. 

“I think there’s so many shows that you can binge just because there’s nothing to do, but when you’re actually, you know, hindered from binging, what is your response to it?” she says. “If the show is actually, really good then you want to see it right through the end.”

‘The Cleaning Lady’ premieres on Jan. 3 on Fox.