“The Cleaning Lady” actress Elodie Yung honored Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) Heritage Month by sharing the story of her Cambodian roots, specifically focusing on her father's experiences.
Key points:
- In a video posted on Fox’s YouTube channel, Yung recounts narrates her father’s journey Cambodia to seek a better life, emphasizing the resilience he passed on to her.
The details:
- Yung’s father, who was born in Phnom Penh, worked as a doctor in Cambodia before their family moved to France during the Khmer Rouge regime’s rule, resulting in an estimated estimated 1.5 to 2 million deaths from starvation, torture, and extrajudicial killings.
- “He’s had a fascinating and complex upbringing,” Yung explains. “His father was a judge, and his mother was a teacher. He had 10 siblings. While he managed to flee Cambodia, he lost everyone. He said, ‘I cried, but then you just have to stop. You have to live.’”
- Yung attributes her own resilience to her father. “I know he passed it on to me. I see him, I see my family, I see my past, and I feel a strong connection,” she says.
- Yung was born in 1981 in France, where she says felt unrepresented while growing up. Her experiences ultimately influenced her determination to amplify the voices of marginalized groups and promote inclusivity.
- “My heritage and upbringing, I bring them with me on set and in every role,” the actress states. “Society is evolving. Television plays a significant role in shaping how a community is depicted.”
“The Cleaning Lady”:
- Yung plays the lead character Thony De La Rosa in Fox’s ongoing TV series “The Cleaning Lady,” which portrays the challenges faced by undocumented immigrants in the U.S.
- Her character is a Cambodian medical professional from the Philippines who enters the U.S. as an undocumented immigrant with her sick son, and ends up working as a cleaning lady for organized crime.
- The character name “Thony” was inspired by one of Yung’s father’s relatives who escaped the Cambodian genocide and has deeply impacted her life.
- “Being part of ‘The Cleaning Lady’ is a blessing to me because it’s the first time I've portrayed a character from my background,” Yung previously shared. “I felt very fortunate to draw from my roots, to tap into the resilience that I inherited from my father. To bring that onto the screen, it might not be fully explicit, but it is an integral part of Thony and is always with me as I play this character.” NextShark“The Cleaning Lady” star Elodie Yung honored Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) Heritage Month by sharing her Cambodian background, especially her father’s personal story.
Key points:
