Interview with The Cleaning Lady creator Miranda Kwok

The Cleaning Lady is a brand new smash-hit on Fox that debuted at the beginning of the year. We had the pleasure of sitting down and talking to the executive producer/creator Miranda Kwok.

The Cleaning Lady follows Thony (Elodie Yung), a Cambodian doctor who comes to the US for medical treatment to save her son. When the system fails her, Thony has to use alternative methods to save her son.

Chatting with Miranda made me grow a newfound appreciation for the show. Understanding why she wanted to create the project, how it came about and the idea of creating a female empowered Breaking Bad. The show has a deep meaning to her and those who work on it.

Hidden Remote talked with Miranda about the creation of the show, representation, the casting of Elodie Yung, and whether or not they are prepared for a second season.

Check out the video version of the interview, below:

Interview with Executive Producer and creator of Fox’s The Cleaning Lady, Miranda Kwok

*This interview has been edited for length and clarity

Hidden Remote: Where did the idea come for the project?

Miranda Kwok: I’ve always wanted to do like a female Breaking Bad and a female empowerment story. I had a blind script deal over at Warner Brothers, and I presented a few options to them and they presented a few ideas to me, and one of them was La Chica Que Limpia, the Argentina format that Shay Mitchell found.

So, of the ideas, this is something I would love to adapt in order to create a show, told from the lens of a completely unexpected hero, which is from the perspective of a Southeast Asian character, and an undocumented immigrant. Someone who was a doctor in her own country who couldn’t practice here and is forced into circumstances that she never thought she’d go into, and how she manages to then, you know, handle all the situations that are thrown at her and all the obstacles that are surmounting, and basically, you know, find her own strength and find her own path and find her own voice and start making her own rules. So that was basically the inspiration of why I wanted to create this show.

HR: Take me behind the casting of Elodie Yung as Thony.

Kwok: Elodie is such a fantastic actor, and we are so fortunate to find her I mean, we did a huge search. We searched LA, New York, Toronto, Vancouver, the UK, Australia, we did a really broad search and this is an extremely difficult character to embody. You know, because she has to be this sort of invisible cleaning lady. But at the same time, she’s a doctor, she’s, you know, super smart. She’s resilient, strong, passionate, determined and so she has to play this amazing range. Elodie is also so nuanced in her performance. And there are times when she just has to just give a look, and she doesn’t have to necessarily say anything to convey so much. Elodie is so incredible that she brings all this to the table.

HR: If you get the call, you ready for The Cleaning Lady season 2?

Kwok: Absolutely. I mean, we are ready. One of the wonderful things about having an amazing creative writers room is that you generate so many stories. You don’t necessarily get to tell them all in, you know, in a 10 episode arc, so there are a lot of stories that we’ve still  been generating and that we’re excited to tell. So, bring it on. We are ready for season two!

You can watch The Cleaning Lady Monday nights on FOX.