After replacing Shannyn Sossamon, Elodie Yung will be playing the lead role Reyna in Fox’s new drama which revolves around Philippine culture. Originally having a Filipino lead character, the role was tweaked (to fit Yung’s Cambodian heritage) by making her a Manila-based Cambodian doctor who marries a Filipino.
“The Cleaning Lady” sounds like a racist show on how Filipino work as housekeepers in the United States. On the contrary, it may be more than that: The show’s premise revolves around a mother’s great sacrifice for her child who needs to undergo medical treatment in the US.
According to Deadline, Yung’s character leaves her medical career in Manila to accompany her son for a treatment for his “life-threatening immunodeficiency.” However, there’s going to be a conflict in the system that pushes her to be an on-call cleaning lady for a mob. She continues this, while hiding it from her undocumented Filipino sister-in-law Fiona Salonga (played by Ginger Gonzaga), and eventually finds herself creating her own path in the criminal underworld.
As much as we are thrilled to have a show that features the story of an immigrant, there’s always going to be fear of lapses when it comes to representation. Although we’d like to give Fox a pat on the back for considering Yung’s ethnicity, their reported pilot episode location (Mexico) seems to miss the mark as it doesn’t actually feature Manila.
We’re also worried about how they’ll write off Fiona Salonga’s character. It’s no secret that there are some Filipinos who set out to settle in the US sometimes find themselves unable to get documented. But given that marginalization and racism might come into play when writing this show, it’s hard not to be skeptical about how they might depict her background.
All these aside, it’s great to have more representation in international TV. We’re hopeful the writers won’t butcher the identity and culture of Filipinos.
[Deadline]
Photo courtesy of Elodie Yung’s Instagram account
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