Tyler Perry has tackled several different genres over the years, but it took the real-life story of the only Black female World War II battalion to inspire him to delve into historical drama for the first time.
“The Six Triple Eight” is now in movie theaters and arrives on Netflix on Dec. 20. “Scandal” star Kerry Washington plays Charity Adams, the tough-as-nails Army commander of the 6888th battalion. Composed of 855 women, it helped the military disentangle a postal disaster and deliver millions of pieces of mail to soldiers and loved ones in Europe desperate for the morale boost four years into the war.
Despite incredible skepticism and resistance from the white male Army leadership, the women cleared a backlog of 7 million pieces of mail in Germany in three months, half the time originally allotted, then worked through millions more in France.
“Twice as good with half as much,” said Washington in a Zoom call with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “They exceeded all expectations.”
The film opens with a war scene and the eventual death of a white Jewish man who Lena Derricott King (Ebony Obsidian) had fallen in love with despite interracial relationships being taboo at the time. Her grief from his death led her to join the Army in 1944.
Perry framed the film around King, who was still alive at the time he wrote the screenplay, flying to her home in Las Vegas to pick her brain in person before production began.
“I got a chance to meet her on her 100th birthday,” Obsidian said. “She was vibrant and so proud that the story was coming to the forefront. I hope we did her justice.”
Before King died in January, Perry was able to show her an early cut of the film. “She saluted the iPad,” Washington said. “She was so grateful the world would have an opportunity to see this story and really know who these women were.”
The battalion came into existence thanks to support from first lady Eleanor Roosevelt (Susan Sarandon) and President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (Sam Waterston).
Perry’s mentor and close friend, Oprah Winfrey, plays a small role as activist, educator and civil rights leader Mary McLeod Bethune, who encouraged the Roosevelts. A scene was shot in the Oval Office of his replica White House, which was used extensively on his BET+ show “The Oval.”
Credit: BOB MAHONEY/PERRY WELL FILMS 2/COURTESY NETFLIX
Credit: BOB MAHONEY/PERRY WELL FILMS 2/COURTESY NETFLIX
Washington wasn’t in any of these scenes. But as an executive producer, she made sure she was on set the day Winfrey, Sarandon and Waterston were at Tyler Perry Studios.
“I had to be at the monitors for this,” Washington said.
When Perry first called Washington about doing an unspecified project, he sent her a sizzle reel sampling what he wanted to do.
“It was a Friday so I decided to wait until Monday to watch it so we could talk about it,” she said. “I didn’t know anything about it at that point. Over the weekend, I did a photo shoot about amazing Black women in history, and I dressed up like Lena on my Instagram. My social media director told the story about the Six Triple Eight and I fell in love with it. I said, ‘Wouldn’t it be cool to do a movie about this?’ Then I watched the sizzle reel and realized this is what Tyler wanted to do. It was serendipity!”
Credit: Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP
Credit: Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP
Washington prepped for the role by reading Adams’ memoir twice, sifting through historical accounts and watching Adams do interviews.
“I was rehearsing one day and we had a knock on the door and a man in transportation said they had found a trunk in an auction that had Charity Adams’ name on the side,” she said. “It was the actual trunk from her time in the Army. We kept getting signs like this that these women are with us. They want us to tell their story.”
Much of the film features Adams going toe-to-toe with racist white men. At one point, a chaplain arrives to berate her battalion before she kicks him out. Dean Norris (“Breaking Bad”) plays her boss, who regularly belittled and undermined her and her battalion.
“That was normal behavior back then,” Obsidian said. “When you act, you feel things in your body and you remember things that weren’t even your own experience. You are stepping in the shoes of people who did experience it. It was visceral. It was disheartening. It was difficult.”
Washington said she gives a lot of credit to Norris for doing such a good job embodying the cynical general.
“It’s not who Dean Norris is in reality,” she said. “I feel this immense gratitude toward him. I never could have had that ‘over my dead body’ monologue unless he properly presented that evil, that disrespect. It enables Charity to have that heroic moment.”
Credit: Getty Images for Netflix
Credit: Getty Images for Netflix
Obsidian has a long history with Perry, starring in his BET dramedy “Sistas.” For her, working at Tyler Perry Studios is “like home.” She was there when Perry set up Camp Quarantine in 2020 to house cast and crew at the studio while shooting “Sistas” and other shows.
“It was good to come home in a very different way and experience it in a historical context,” Obsidian said.
The land that holds Tyler Perry Studios was once used during the Civil War to mobilize Confederate troops. It later became Fort McPherson, an Army based that closed in 2011. In 2015, Tyler Perry bought 330 acres of the base, officially opening his studios in 2019. Many of the original Army buildings were used in “The Six Triple Eight.”
“There is irony and poetry in the fact that this space was once occupied by a Confederate army trying to maintain the system of slavery as opposed to what it’s being used for now — to uplift the stories of Americans of all shades and backgrounds,” Washington said. “That is beautiful creative justice happening on that land.”
Obsidian added: “I think we baptized it.”
Credit: Bob Mahoney/Perry Well Films 2/Courtesy of Netflix
Credit: Bob Mahoney/Perry Well Films 2/Courtesy of Netflix
IF YOU WATCH
“The Six Triple Eight.” Showing in a limited theatrical run at Landmark Cinema and IPIC Cinema in Atlanta. Debuts on Netflix on Dec. 20.
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