MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
In recent years, we've seen more and more books and films that examine little-known parts of history - "Hidden Figures," for example. Now, filmmaker Tyler Perry has teamed up with actress Kerry Washington to tell the story of the only predominantly Black all female army battalion dispatched to Europe during World War II. They had the tough, tedious, but crucial job of sorting through thousands of bags of backlogged mail that never reached service members or their loved ones.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THE SIX TRIPLE EIGHT")
KERRY WASHINGTON: (As Major Charity Adams) When there is no mail there is low morale.
MARTIN: The unit was "The Six Triple Eight" - that's the name of the movie, inspired by their story. It premiered earlier this month in theaters, and you can see it on Netflix. Kerry Washington plays the commanding officer of the battalion, Major Charity Adams. She is also an executive producer, and she is with us now along with writer-director Tyler Perry. Welcome to you, both. Thank you both so much for joining us.
WASHINGTON: Thank you.
TYLER PERRY: My pleasure, Michel. Thank you.
MARTIN: You know, I know that the six triple eight received the Congressional Gold Medal in March of 2022. I'm embarrassed to admit that that's the first time I heard about them. So Tyler Perry, can I ask, how did you first hear about them?
PERRY: Listen, I hadn't heard about them, either. It was Nicole Avant who had gotten this great sizzle reel. She sent it to me. She said, watch this and call me. I watched the sizzle reel. You know, it was just this few minutes of clips and footage of what we want the movie to be. And when I saw it, I called Nicole and I go, you're kidding me, right? There were 855 Black women and women of color in World War II in Europe and we didn't know it? I don't know it. She's, like, no, we have to do this movie. And then Keri Selig and Carlota Espinosa - they're also producers on the movie - they were telling me that there are surviving members. And there was one that they had been in touch with. Her name was Lena King, and she's 99-years-old. And I said, I'm going to meet her. Her recall was incredible. The first thing I asked her was about, you know, tell me about the six triple eight and being a part of it. She started talking about her friend Abram, young Jewish boy...
MARTIN: Wow.
PERRY: ...That she was friends with, and she got so emotional. 80 years of emotion came back into her eyes. I was just like, wow.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THE SIX TRIPLE EIGHT")
GREGG SULKIN: (As Abram David) I'm going to fight in this war. I want you to wear this ring as a promise that you will wait for me to return.
MARTIN: All right. Well, Kerry Washington, how about you? How did you hear about the six triple eight?
WASHINGTON: Tyler sent me this link, saying, watch this, I think it's something that we could work on together. I opened the link, and it's an entire feature film about the six triple eight, who I had really not heard about until a couple of days before. But I thought, you know, I'm not 17. He said, I want you to play their captain, Captain Charity Adams. And I just immediately got full-body chills. I was, like, I want to be a part of this project, count me in. And then I said, Tyler, how in the world are you going to make a movie that is captivating and beautiful and epic about the mail and about a postal battalion? How are you going to do that?
MARTIN: Let me just back up for a minute. The Army was not fully integrated until 1948. I just want to play a clip from the film where the characters in the film talk about why they signed up. So let's play it.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THE SIX TRIPLE EIGHT")
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: (As character) Ladies, why did y'all come here?
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #2: (As character) Draft was trying to take my fiance.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #3: (As character) I know that's right.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #4: (As character) Fighting for my country.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #5: (As character) Girl, shoot. I'm trying to bring my husband home soon.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #6: (As character) Wasn't nothing for me in Texas.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #7: (As character) I wanted to go to school.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #8: (As character) Oh, me, too.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #9: (As character) I had wanted to travel and see the world.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: (As character) Good luck with that. Y'all made it to Georgia.
(LAUGHTER)
MARTIN: OK, so Tyler, let me go back to you on this. What did you find about why women signed up?
PERRY: Well, in my research, the greatest thing is having a living witness. I mean, Lena's recall was so amazing. She would tell me stories and I had hired a historian. And everything she said, I would run it by him, and he would be, like, oh, yeah, that's factual. She's dead on. So when she talked about wanting to serve, she talked about how unfair and awful she thought it was that Abram had been killed and she wanted to fight Hitler. She wanted to get into the war efforts. And I asked her why were the - a lot of the other women there. And these are some of the things she said.
MARTIN: Does either of you have a theory about why it's taken so long for the six triple eight to be recognized?
PERRY: I do for - in some of my research, what I found is a lot of the women who came back, they were ashamed of being in the Army Corps. And part of that reason was because there were rumors that they were sent over only to be concubines...
MARTIN: Oh, wow.
PERRY: ...To Black soldiers in Europe. So when they came home, nobody actually talked about it. Because at the time, white soldiers were very upset that European women were dating Black male soldiers over in Europe. So many of the members came back and didn't say anything. They didn't talk about it. Some of their own children did not even know.
MARTIN: So, Kerry, let's talk about Captain then Major Charity Adams. There's a scene early on where you are "welcoming" - I have that in air quotes - the new recruits to training in Georgia. And she is letting them know in no uncertain terms what is expected of them. Let's play it.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THE SIX TRIPLE EIGHT")
WASHINGTON: (As Major Charity Adams) You are not only in the army, you are women and you are Negroes. And because you are Negroes and women, you do not have the luxury to be as good as the white soldiers. You have the burden to be better.
MARTIN: The character of the sort of the Black leader who needs the Black people to be better - it has been a part of Black literature and film for some time. But the other thing about Major Adams - first Captain Adams then Major Adams - a lot of us who've been in sort of those positions where we had to both manage up and manage down. And I was just, I guess, really, honestly, Kerry Washington, because you were at a point in your career where you've done a lot of things, whether you have felt yourself in that position and how you navigated it.
WASHINGTON: I think one of the things that resonated in playing her was that no matter what I've been through, up until this point in my career, it pales in comparison to what they were navigating and what she was able to walk through and accomplish. So it really helped to give me - and I think a lot of the actors - a lot of perspective and gratitude for the people who've come before us and really had to navigate this delicate dance.
PERRY: And she was 26 years old.
WASHINGTON: Yeah, she was...
MARTIN: Wow.
WASHINGTON: ...26 years old.
PERRY: Yeah.
MARTIN: I didn't even think of that.
WASHINGTON: I keep joking...
PERRY: Yeah.
WASHINGTON: ...Like, you know, I couldn't command myself at 26 years old, never mind 855 women traveling overseas for the first time. So I think what you're talking about is very identifiable. I think the film is resonating not just with Black women, but the film is also resonating for anybody who's ever felt underestimated or marginalized or pushed aside. These women were fighting for a country that wasn't always fighting for them, but they believed in the seed of what this democracy could be. And they believed in their own capacity to create important change.
MARTIN: That is Kerry Washington and Tyler Perry. They're talking to us about their new film, "The Six Triple Eight" and you can see it on Netflix. Tyler Perry, Kerry Washington, thank you both so much for talking with us.
WASHINGTON: Thank you...
PERRY: My pleasure.
WASHINGTON: ...Michel.
PERRY: Thank you, Michel.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "AIR MAIL SPECIAL")
ELLA FITZGERALD: (Singing) This is the name of the song. It's called "Air Mail Special." Get on, get on this special car... Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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