Exclusive Interview: Pop Culturalist Chats with The Cleaning Lady’s Martha Millan and Melissa Carter

The stakes couldn’t be higher in Fox’s must-see new primetime drama The Cleaning Lady.

Premiering on January 3rd, The Cleaning Lady follows a whip-smart Cambodian doctor who comes to the U.S. for a medical treatment to save her son, but when the system fails and pushes her into hiding, she uses her cunning and intelligence to fight back, breaking the law for all the right reasons.

Pop Culturalist was lucky enough to chat with showrunner Melissa Carter and actress Martha Millan about The Cleaning Lady, the timely themes the show tackles, and more!

PC: Melissa, could you introduce us to The Cleaning Lady and what fans can expect from the series?
Melissa: The Cleaning Lady is a character-driven drama with crime elements and female empowerment moments. It really is a nice mix of genres where the characters are very grounded but the plot is explosive, exciting, and unexpected. The characters always react to those crazy moments in a very grounded way. If you like shows like This Is Us and The Sopranos, it’s this great melange of character/family dramas mixed with exciting, thrilling moments.

PC: Martha, what was it about this particular character and project that stood out to you?
Martha: First and foremost, it was centered on the Filipino culture—and also the fact that I could actually play a Filipino role. I’ve played Filipino roles in the past, but to actually play one as a series regular has been incredible. Normally, I’m playing a guest-starring role. To really live out the character fully was a phenomenal experience for me. Fiona is unpredictable, chaotic, and emotionally volatile. That in itself was so much fun to go through every day.

Melissa: The character that can go from an angst-driven sobbing place to a joking place in the same scene is Martha’s character Fiona De La Rosa. Her range as an actress—that she’s able to go from making you laugh to making you cry within the same scene—is such a gift and a skill. A lot of actors don’t have that. We always say, “Here come the waterworks!” Some actors will come onto set and need to step away. They’ll smell something that makes their eyes watery. They have to play sad music. With Martha, we’ll be like, “Maybe you can try this version where you tear up a bit.” On cue, the tears will spring up in her eyes. She’s an amazing actress that has a range that is exciting to write for. Once we saw that range, we knew that she could handle it. We’ve been really leaning into that place as writers, knowing that you can be with her laughing one moment and crying the next.

Martha: I’m always excited whenever I read the episodes that are coming up. I’m like, “Where is Fiona going to go?” It’s one minute of emotional shifts, but it’s so beautifully challenging. I’m incredibly grateful to the writers to have this emotional bliss every day. I really appreciate it, Melissa. Thank you!

Melissa: It’s been such a joy to work with Martha. In the beginning, Fiona De La Rosa is someone who’s used to operating in the shadows. She’s a TNT (tago ng tago). Every decision she makes, whether it’s going to the grocery store or taking a job where she might not know what she’s getting into, is based on weighing the chances of being caught and deported.

She goes from that to a character who starts speaking out for herself and starts feeling more and more empowered to take up space. She is really pushed to the limits, partly through helping Thony (her sister-in-law). She really does start to take some of those risks that Thony has to take to save her son. Not that she’s influenced by that, but she goes from those moments where she’s almost afraid to go into the world in her minivan to then confronting head-on people who are in power. It’s a very exciting arc that Fiona goes on.

PC: Speaking of that, Martha, without giving any spoilers, Episode 5 is such an emotional roller coaster. For you as an actress, how did you prepare for that episode?
Martha: When I read the script, I started crying. I didn’t even have to go to any lengths to connect with that scene—I felt it. You’re on set and you’re in cages and the guards are patting you down. The physical connection of that violation is so powerful that it affected me. At the same time, for Fiona as a mother, being in that situation, it’s now or never. She’ll lose everything and that’s constantly been in her mind. Her nightmare is right in front of her.

For me, it was about being present with what was happening in that moment and experiencing it as a person, whether it was as Martha or Fiona. I connected with that straight away—with the visceral violation of a person’s rights. It was extremely emotional for me but also incredibly challenging as an actor.

There’s a moment that she has with her colleague about finding solace while being there. They’re trying to find hope, but they may be deported. It’s this jarring emotional shift that will allow you to go there emotionally. For me as an actor, being in those cages and wrapped in those blankets was enough for me to understand what those people have gone through.

PC: Melissa, you and Miranda [Kwok] have been working on this project since 2019. How did this partnership originally form and how are you feeling three weeks ahead of its premiere?
Melissa: I’m so excited for the premiere. Because of the COVID shutdown and lockdown, we’ve been working on this project since 2018 or 2019. It’s hard to remember with COVID brain. But we have been working on this for a long time. She had a pitch which was about five pages long. I read the pages. I watched some of the Argentinian show. It felt like it had all the elements of a hit. Our main character Thony De La Rosa’s drive is so strong. She’s a woman who will go to any lengths to save her son.

So many people can relate to that. That broadens out to the family who will do anything for each other. Fiona is a woman who will do anything for her children. Thony will do anything for her son. They’ll do anything for each other. These are all relatable themes.

Working on this project with Miranda has been great. She took the original format and developed it so that you have a Southeast Asian family at the center. It’s set in Las Vegas. You’re dealing with undocumented workers and what they go through. It’s not just a statistic on the news. You’re walking in the shoes of these characters that you love and seeing how it’s such a bureaucratic system and how difficult it is to get citizenship. The path to citizenship changes all the time, depending on who is president and what administration is in place. I feel like what’s exciting about The Cleaning Lady is that it’s really a Trojan horse to send into American homes where it’s coming off as this exciting crime-thriller, which it is, but we’re also exploring a range of real topics like immigration.

What does the American Dream mean to each individual who comes to these shores? America has always been a place where everyone from America is from someplace else. We tend to forget that this is a young country. It’s only 200 or 225 years old. We’re all immigrants. We all have a history of immigration from somewhere.

We also have Armenian families. We have an Argentinian lead. We have a Mexican-American lead. We have characters that speak multiple languages. The American Dream means something. It’s the same dream that we all have coming to America. But it also means slightly different things, depending on what perspective you’re looking from and how long people have been in this country. We explore all those issues in a fun, exciting way.

I’m so excited for people to see it because Miranda and I literally worked on Episode 2 for almost an entire year, which is too long. [laughs] No one should ever have to do that, but it meant that we really thought about the series thoroughly.

Martha: To add to that, it’s groundbreaking in every way, where the actors and the writers are all represented culturally. It’s a great representation of what the world is and how the world is today. It also poses the question, as Melissa said, “How would you feel if you were in their shoes? What would you do? How far would you go as a family for your family?” It really makes you question that.

PC: Speaking of family, at the center of this story is this family and the extreme lengths that they’ll go to to protect each other. Martha, how did you, Elodie [Yung], and the rest of the cast build that bond that we see on screen?
Martha: We’ve been so lucky in terms of the comradery, authenticity, and friendship that you see on and off screen. Also the connection between Fiona and her children is real. She wants to give her children a better life, but there are consequences to the decisions and actions that she’s taken to get there. As Melissa said, you get to see the evolution of this character. You see her rectify the choices that she made early on.

As people, we do want to give to our families, our friends, etc. You see that off screen as well. We’re family. We definitely like to tease each other like family as well. That’s the chemistry you see. The connection is real.

Melissa: The connection is completely real. I probably shouldn’t say this, but towards the end, I had a couple of directors saying Martha and Elodie are laughing too much. “This is a serious scene coming up. Can you get a hold of them? Can you say something?” [laughs] I told the directors that they would calm down. We laugh a lot working together. That’s a great thing when you’re looking forward to seeing each other when you go to work.

Martha: We miss each other right now. We all do. In real life, Elodie and I have Thony and Fiona moments when we were driving.

Melissa: Worst drivers.

Martha: We do have good driving skills. When we do it on set, everybody is fully aware that we’re both going to be doing our own driving.

Melissa: We have debates. It was tested on one of our roads on the last day where I was like, “They’re both admittedly terrible drivers.” But it was a blocked-off street. It wasn’t even 400 yards. Elodie would drive, stop, talk, drive, stop, talk. It’s like they literally can’t drive and act at the same time. We will no longer be doing that unless we have a picture car. [laughs]

Martha: You have to keep in mind the car that we’re driving!

Melissa: It’s a beat-up minivan and you’re a New Yorker. She was raised in Paris. Do you even have a driver’s license?

Martha: I do, but it’s an Australian driver’s license. We drive on the left-hand side of the road, so I did have to do some adjustments.

Melissa: Driving and acting is not easy. I haven’t done it. I’m not going to claim to think it’s easy, but it’s such a good group. Everyone did get along. We didn’t have any divas. We didn’t have any people with outsized egos. We didn’t have anyone that was trying to compete with each other. It was such a caring, giving environment where everyone was present for each other. They’re there for each other off camera, wanting to give their all, take after take after take. It’s wonderful to watch it. It made coming to work a pleasure.

Make sure to follow Martha (Twitter/Instagram) and Melissa (Twitter/Instagram). Watch The Cleaning Lady every Monday at 9/8c on Fox.

Photo Credit: Yanina May (Martha)