Elodie Yung stars as Thony De La Rosa, a Cambodian physician working in Las Vegas in “The Cleansing Woman,” airing Mondays at 9 p.m. on Fox.
Thony got here to the US along with her younger, son, Luca, who urgently wants a bone-marrow transplant. However his donor backed out, leaving mom and son stranded in Sin Metropolis and forcing Thony to scrub inns on the Vegas Strip along with her sister-in-law, Fiona (Martha Millan), to save cash for Luca’s hoped-for medical therapy.
She’s pressured to align with mobster Arman Morales (Adan Canto) after witnessing a gangland homicide. He saves her life, however with a caveat: she’s now on his payroll to scrub up his messes — bloody and in any other case — whereas he makes use of his connections to assist save Luca’s life. And there’s an FBI angle within the type of Agent Garrett Miller (Oliver Hudson).
“To me, Thony isn’t a personality, she’s an actual individual,” mentioned Yung, 40, who grew up in France (she’s Cambodian on her father’s aspect) and performed Elektra Natchios on Season 2 of Marvel’s “Daredevil.”
“She’s thrown into these conditions towards her will and she or he has to seek out methods to make do and survive — as a result of in any other case her life and her son’s life will probably be endangered,” Yung mentioned. “There’s this fixed internal battle with doing the best factor and, on the identical time, there’s strain as a result of time is ticking away and she or he must discover a remedy for her son.”
“The Cleansing Woman” relies on the Argentinian hit “La Chica Que Lampia” and was tailored for Fox by sequence creator Miranda Kwok and several other govt producers, together with former “Fairly Little Liars” star Shay Mitchell and Melissa Carter (“Stargirl,” “Queen Sugar”).
“This can be a character-driven crime drama in Las Vegas, the place the whole lot is bizarre and sudden,” mentioned Carter. “And when have you ever seen an all-Southeast Asian household on the coronary heart of sequence, because the leads, in a drama?
“Thony is kind of our ‘Alice in Wonderland,’” she mentioned. “Fairy tales are basically darkish … and, like Alice, Thony goes via the trying glass into Las Vegas and into this very unusual world that’s utterly totally different from her dwelling nation. She’s going to do something to avoid wasting her son, however she’s a physician, and the Hippocratic Oath of ‘Do No Hurt’ is what she lives by. Her credo is to by no means do something that causes hurt to different folks, so it’s fascinating that somebody with that ethical heart is cleansing up crime scenes — however to her it’s justified, since she’s cleansing up after the very fact.”
“There’s a morality theme [at the series’ core] and Thony has to face that all through her journey, and it’s going to evolve as a result of she needs to be resilient,” Yung mentioned. “She has to adapt each time to a brand new surroundings and to new conditions — and survive.”
Whereas there’s a trace of romantic spark between Thony and Arman, Yung mentioned she sees their relationship on a unique degree.
“She’s received no time for [romance]. It’s not on her menu,” she mentioned. “Arman sees one thing on this lady that reminds him of his household; he can determine and reply to her strengths regardless of her state of affairs and her standing. That’s the attraction.
“In Thony’s world, this chaotic state of affairs she’s thrown into, he’s the one hand that’s been given to her and she or he has to make that alternative — do I take his assist or not? There may be chemistry between them however I believe it’s past a romantic relationship.
“It’s a deeper understanding of what each of them are going via.”
