{"id":17139,"date":"2022-06-30T08:20:16","date_gmt":"2022-06-30T12:20:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev2.worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/miranda-kwok-adapting-cleaning-lady\/"},"modified":"2022-07-06T14:57:29","modified_gmt":"2022-07-06T18:57:29","slug":"miranda-kwok-on-adapting-the-cleaning-lady","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/miranda-kwok-on-adapting-the-cleaning-lady\/","title":{"rendered":"Miranda Kwok on Adapting The Cleaning Lady"},"content":{"rendered":"

Miranda Kwok took part in the final keynote conversation of the TV Drama Festival, discussing how she adapted the successful Argentinean series The Cleaning Lady<\/em> for FOX in the U.S.<\/p>\n

Kwok participated in a conversation with TV Drama<\/em>\u2019s Kristin Brzoznowski. You can view the session here<\/a>. After her work on The CW series The 100<\/em>, Kwok was offered a blind script deal at Warner Bros. Shay Mitchell had brought the original Argentinean format, La Chica Que Limpia<\/em>,\u00a0to the studio. \u201cSeeing Shay Mitchell on board, who\u2019s half Filipina, I thought, why not have this character be from the Philippines? A Southeast Asian character is something we\u2019ve never seen on American television, not as a leading character anyway.\u201d<\/p>\n

On what attracted her to the show, Kwok noted: \u201cI\u2019ve always wanted to do a female Breaking Bad<\/em>. In adapting this project, there were a few elements I wanted to layer in. Not only was she going to be a cleaning lady, but eventually become a sort of mob boss in her own right and take charge. The Argentinean format was a one-season show. In bringing it to an American audience, I had to figure out how to make this a show that could last for many, many seasons. And not to have her just be a cleaning lady, but somebody who was a doctor in her country that isn\u2019t able to work in the U.S. because her credentials don\u2019t translate. That is such a familiar story with so many people from different countries. I definitely wanted to bring voice to that. And then the other layer that I thought was really exciting to put in there was to have her be an undocumented immigrant. That is such a hot topic right now. Sometimes people can be afraid to address what that means. She is a cleaning lady and she is silenced and pushed into the shadows and told not to speak, not to raise her voice, not to raise a stink about anything. She basically defies all that and finds her own strength and defies all the obstacles laid out before her.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kwok had initially envisioned landing a cable or streaming home for the show. \u201cThat\u2019s usually the platform where stories like this land. The darker criminal elements of it, the serialized element of it, and the leads were going to be diverse characters. At the forefront of the show is a Filipino Cambodian family, and we have diverse characters across the board. Normally those are shows that aren\u2019t as embraced by mainstream media. But as I was developing the project with Warner Bros., they said, there seems to be a much greater appetite and audience for diverse and marginalized voices, we would love to pitch this to the networks first. And I was like, OK, we\u2019d have to adjust language and nudity and violence, scale that down, but what was most important was the story. I said, I don\u2019t want to change that, but sure, let\u2019s pitch it and see. FOX scooped it up immediately. I feel so fortunate. Being on a broadcast platform allows the show to be seen by a much larger, broader audience. It\u2019s blown me away how well it\u2019s been received. We were getting 3 million to 3.5 million viewers live the night of airing, which is really difficult to do in this climate. Now, 12 million people have watched the pilot. People who don\u2019t normally have access to cable and streaming, who can\u2019t pay for those extra services, are able to watch the show and see themselves reflected in the show.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kwok went on to discuss her mission as a storyteller. \u201cOne of the most important things is to tell stories that matter, that can reach hearts and minds, that can affect people so that it can bring a greater understanding about humanity. Ultimately, that\u2019s what this show is about. When you show these characters that you don\u2019t normally see, you\u2019re opening people\u2019s perspectives and ideas. That starts with your show having multi-dimensional characters. The more we can just show that and put that specificity on-screen, the more we can understand each other and then understand that at the core, we are all more the same than we are different.\u201d<\/p>\n

On how the show achieves that, Kwok said, \u201cThat starts with embracing each character fully for who they are and everything they bring and all the layers. We really made a point to have authenticity not only in front of the camera but behind the camera as well. We tried to diversify our cast and crew as much as possible so that we can speak to those voices and those experiences. It\u2019s really hard to understand what it\u2019s like to be in someone else\u2019s skin unless you\u2019ve had those experiences. At the same time, all the writers in our room can speak to their perspectives on everything and everyone. We all have different perspectives on the world and they\u2019re all valid. It\u2019s a matter of talking through them so that we understand all these perspectives so that we can show the nuances of what that means on-screen, instead of giving a single idea of the character or a single experience. We try to flesh out the totality of what somebody experiences.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kwok has been in the content business since childhood, landing her first on-screen TV role when she was 13. \u201cThere was a time when I thought I was going to quit the industry because the roles were so limited. The roles that I was getting were more stereotypical or just limited. As a writer, you\u2019re able to tell different perspectives. Because there haven\u2019t been a lot of stories about Asian families and Asian characters as fully fleshed out as they can be, that\u2019s one of the things that inspired me to pitch stories with Asian characters. To get that representation on-screen.\u201d<\/p>\n

The success of Crazy Rich Asians<\/em> helped change the game for Asian representation in Hollywood, Kwok noted. \u201cIt showed that there\u2019s an audience and appetite out there not only for diverse stories but specifically Asian stories. Diversity has been getting better through the years, but it has been better for other communities, less so for the Asian community.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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