Tyler Perry, Kerry Washington talk film

No longer overlooked.

The true story of the 855 black women in the Women’s Army Corps during World War II – the only all-black Women’s Army Corps unit overseas during the war – is properly honored in “The Six Triple Eight.”

Kerry Washington and filmmaker Tyler Perry join forces for the film (streaming on Netflix Friday) to shine a light on America’s unsung heroes.

Maj. Charity Adams (played by Washington) and the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion were tasked with the gigantic “morale” mission of sorting through a three-year backlog of undelivered mail and forwarding 17 million items to soldiers and their families.

Although Adams was a stoic leader of her soldiers, “the women of the 6888th truly loved her. They admired her,” says Washington, 47, who worked with Perry on “For Colored Girls” in 2010.

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“She was strict and strict and had very high expectations,” the actress says, but “did it with a certain amount of love and compassion. … Although she expected a lot of them, it was because she wanted a lot of them.”

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When 55-year-old writer/director Perry received a “sizzle reel” pitch from producer Nicole Avant (daughter of the late “Black Godfather” of music Clarence Avant and his wife Jacqueline), he was stunned, having never heard of the heroics of the film to have heard women.

“You’re kidding, right? There is no way there were 855 black women in Europe during World War II. And she says, ‘No, that’s a true story.’ “So I started getting my hands on as much information as I could,” says Perry, including an article by Kevin M. Hymel, the film’s historian.

Despite widespread misogyny, the women cleared the piles of mail in a record three months while stationed in England and did so again in France.

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The film focuses on the exhausting, centuries-long state of resilience in which black women have been forced to operate: to turn the other cheek, to stand strong against generational hatred, to be twice as good, to get half as much (and with fewer resources to earn it). happen).

“Progress is slow and uphill,” says Perry. “These women didn’t have the same kind of racism that we did. We have laws that can help us fight. These women didn’t even have the right to vote.”

The Netflix film also marks the first time for Perry and Washington to star in a war film (she had a supporting role in Spike Lee’s “Miracle at St. Anna”). Adams “wrote a really fantastic memoir that I read and devoured a few times,” says Washington.

“I talked to people who knew her and loved her and worked with her, looked at archive footage, listened to old interviews and took photos. I mean, I just tried to absorb as much about her as I could.”

Working together again came with a slight learning curve (Washington “had to get used to how fast I shoot,” Perry says), but it created “powerful” moments on set.

“I really wanted to — pardon the pun — get in the trenches with him and help make it a reality and help him realize his vision for it,” Washington says.

During Washington’s poignant monologue in the second half of the film, Perry says, “We had our military coordinators in the background looking at the monitor. And I heard one of them: she was wailing. She couldn’t control herself…amazed at what was happening.”

The film’s prominent entry point is Lena Derriecott King (Ebony Obsidian), one of the last surviving members of the battalion, who died in January at the age of 100. Perry “didn’t know what to expect” when they met before filming.

“This woman comes in with her hair and makeup done and sits across from me (and says, ‘Hello, I’m Lena Derriecott,'”) Perry recalls, adding that she was “still going dancing, still. “ drove until maybe eight or nine months before her death.

“Her memory, her memory was so fascinating that I went to the historian and asked him if what she had told me was true. He said, ‘Absolutely, she was on point with everything she said,'” Perry says.

As King, Obsidian rounds out a group of young black actresses (Sarah Jeffery, Pepi Sonuga, Milauna Jackson, Moriah Brown and Shanice Shantay) who have benefited from Washington’s mentorship both on and off screen.

During a set shutdown due to a thunderstorm, “we were all just sitting around with nothing to do. And that never happens on Tyler Perry sets,” Washington recalls. That’s how actress and choreographer Debbie Allen came to gather the cast to “ask everything” and “just make the most of this time.”

“I was also allowed to ask Debbie my questions. But it was really fun to create this space with the girls, socialize and reach a new level of intimacy,” says Washington.

The film also marks the first time Perry has directed his longtime friend Oprah Winfrey, who plays civil rights activist and FDR advisor Mary McLeod Bethune alongside Sam Waterston’s President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Susan Sarandon’s Eleanor Roosevelt.

Winfrey is “not a Madea girl,” so Perry waited for the perfect opportunity for his fellow media mogul. “She took the chance,” he says. “She was just like any other superstar, a professional actress who showed at the level of ‘I want to give my best to the project.'”

Winfrey, Washington and Perry entered the 2024 campaign with Vice President Kamala Harris at the Democratic National Convention and Georgia, respectively. It’s not lost on them that the film’s release follows Harris’ defeat by President-elect Donald Trump.

Washington recalled that King saw the film before her death.

“She laughed, saluted the screen and said, ‘Thank you for letting the world know that black women contributed,'” the actress says. “Black women have been contributing to our democracy and protecting our democracy for so long. In the film you can see that they are standing up for this country at a time when the country hasn’t always stood up for them.”

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Tyler Perry, Kerry Washington talk film

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