‘The Cleaning Lady’: Élodie Yung Talks ‘Painful’ Experience of Filming Adan Canto’s Farewell
The cast and crew of The Cleaning Lady are still grieving the loss of star Adan Canto. The 44-year-old died in January 2024 following a private battle with cancer, and this tragic loss forced the show to completely rework its Season 3 plan.
The original plan was always to dive into Arman’s familial backstory, as we’ve seen in Season 3 with the addition of Ramona (Kate del Castillo) and Jorge (Santiago Cabrera), but Arman himself had to be written out. Filming the episode that revealed Arman’s fate was a “painful” experience for star Élodie Yung.
“I certainly have never had to do something like this,” Yung tells TV Insider. “As an actor, I certainly use my personal life and feelings for a character I have to portray. This is a very different thing.”
The Cleaning Lady Season 3 began filming after Canto’s death, but not long after. They’re all still grieving the loss of their friend. As Yung shares, “This is us personally as a group, mourning the loss of a friend of a colleague. I can’t even describe it.”
The Daredevil alum says that Season 3 Episode 6, in which Thony finally found Arman but a car chase with the FBI led to his tragic end, required no acting from her as she filmed her final shots with the character (Canto is superimposed into the scenes).
“There’s work and there’s reality,” Yung says. “None of this, none of these scenes you see felt like work for me. It was just painful. That’s it. That’s all I have to say. This whole season, there’s not one day on set I haven’t thought of Adan. It’s been very painful.”
Season 3 has been dedicated to Canto’s memory, and their love for him “spills” into all the work they do, says Yung.
“The show, our producers, the writers, myself, we try to definitely honor him, and I put all my love in whatever we had to go through,” she says. “But everything was just a very strange, painful situation. Not even strange, but it’s like it spills. You play lovers on screen, things spill, and you can’t help just really loving the person. Thony is mourning Arman, and we are mourning a friend. We are driven on that. So hopefully it’s been done with decency and all of our thoughts are constantly going to his wife and his kids.”
Thony is driven by revenge in the remaining episodes of The Cleaning Lady Season 3. She suspects foul play with Ramona and her possible ties to Arman’s kidnapping, and Thony won’t rest until she gets answers.
The Cleaning Lady, Tuesdays, 8/7c, FOX
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R
It is painful to know Adan Canto is gone for good, I feel sad for the cast but mostly for his wife kids, he was so young and had a great future ahead of him. I will continue to watch it but I will really miss him but the show also has a great strong cast but you will feel his absence.
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J
I hope the Cleaning Lady will continue. We will all miss Adan of course, but a new love interest could be worked in, couldn't it? Maybe she works with a new FBI agent, & falls in love with him? idk. We'll leave it up to the writers! Good luck with the great series! Love it! 💕
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P
I think it's too painful to watch the show now I am always missing 🤔
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O
A couple of notes for the article: Adan was 42, not 44. Season 3 had also already begun filming about a month before his death, not after.
As for the show, they have done an incredible job in honouring Adan and I'm so grateful for it. I would love to see a season 4, but I hope that it would focus on Thony and her other relationships rather than giving her a new love interest.
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C
I didn't know Adan had died in real life. There was just something heavy over everyone after the cliff episode. I had to goggle the show and saw that Adan had died . In his early 40s just last year.
So sad
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B
Why don’t they make the story line that he had plastic surgery to his face because he has become the new head of the cartel. That way they could keep him alive even is spirit.
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C
Sadly, I think the show is going to be cancelled. Nothing can replace Adan Canto's charisma and the chemistry between Adan and Elodie could be felt. Such an incredibly sad ending to a great show.
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G
Adam was the heart and soul of the cleaning woman and gorgeous. It's been hard to watch without him
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D
Gutted when Adan died, I would have stopped watching had it not been for Lancelot joining the cast ( if you know you know)
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R
I actually thought at the end it was going to be he was still alive and they get together I still can't believe he's died irl such a gorgeous and young man