The Six Triple Eight: Tyler Perry & Kerry Washington put Christmas on hold

ODE

They're bringing the story of the under-celebrated US WW2 postal battalion to Netflix, this December. Report by Nelsonj. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn

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00:00I am tired. I want to take a nap.

00:02It's not just about soldiers, it was about human beings.

00:05Without any judgment, I just wanted to tell their story.

00:08Unlike some other folks here, we have the most to prove.

00:12Now is where you show the proof.

00:15This is our mission.

00:18Guys, hello.

00:20Welcome to London.

00:22I wonder, when you release something like this close to Christmas,

00:25what's it like for you guys?

00:27Because you fly to the other side of the world,

00:29you go on the trail of promoting and stuff.

00:32But you've obviously got a mind of family time

00:36and shutting things down and downing tools.

00:39So what's going through your mind at a time like this?

00:42Are you just waiting for that kind of end date

00:45or are you just juggling all the different plans at once?

00:47I can't wait to hear her answer, Carrie.

00:49What's it like for you? Tell me.

00:51So we have a fellow producer, Nicole Avant,

00:55who talks about living her life as a thank you.

00:58And she has made this film, in many ways,

01:01to live her thank you to the women of the 6888.

01:04And I feel like the gift that they've given us

01:08in their legacy deserves to be celebrated.

01:11So I think we're mostly focused on paying forward

01:15the gifts they've given us to the public,

01:18making sure that people know who they are,

01:20that they're celebrating their legacy.

01:22We will have time after the movie's out

01:24to be with our family and friends,

01:26but this moment is really about them and for them.

01:29And so even if we have minutes here and there

01:32where we're like, I'm tired,

01:33it's like what we're up against is nothing

01:36compared to what they were up against

01:39and what they showed up for.

01:40That is so good.

01:41And so we are here for them.

01:43That's a good answer.

01:44Because I'm going, I'm tired.

01:46I am tired. I want to take a nap.

01:48But yes, we're here for them.

01:50We're here for them.

01:53Let's talk about the film.

01:54It got me thinking, which is always a danger.

01:56That's good.

01:57Whenever I watch movies or TV shows

02:00or engage in any stuff like art to do with World War II,

02:03there's a strange comfort in it

02:05because it feels like almost the last global conflict

02:08where there seemed to be no moral or political ambiguity.

02:12You think of it as uniting people.

02:14You grow up watching movies and hearing about it

02:16and you all feel the same kind of thing.

02:20And you get more cynical as you get older

02:22and you learn about more things that go on.

02:24When you tell a story like this

02:27and you uncover truths like this and stories like this

02:31and you kind of learn that,

02:32there's always that moral ambiguity.

02:35Is that the thing that draws you to these stories?

02:38Do you perhaps even mourn the youthful...

02:43Innocence?

02:44Innocence, really, of the way we look at these stories.

02:48For me, The Six Triple Eight in particular,

02:50I approach it from the point of view of just telling their story

02:55and not being in judgment of the characters,

02:57not being in judgment of what they went through,

02:59not being in judgment of any of that,

03:01but just telling their stories.

03:02And especially after meeting Lena King at 99 years old

03:05and seeing her lead the planet at 100,

03:08I felt this tremendous sense of honor

03:13to be able to be the steward of helping her story

03:17and the rest of the women of The Six Triple Eight

03:19get to the world.

03:20So without any judgment, I just wanted to tell their story,

03:24if that makes sense.

03:25How do you guys relate to a story like this?

03:30I mean, Tyler in particular,

03:32because we look at you as a figure,

03:34like quite a fascinating figure in kind of modern entertainment

03:38as someone who's undeniably one of the most successful people

03:40in the history of Hollywood,

03:42but who operates perhaps outside and around Hollywood

03:45a lot of the time,

03:46and you look at the plays that you've got going

03:48and the TV shows and the movies and stuff,

03:50you weren't necessarily anointed by the studios.

03:55You kind of pushed stuff through.

03:57So did you read the story and learn about this story

03:59and you're kind of like,

04:00I see myself in these characters, these people,

04:03and what they had to do and what they had to fight against?

04:06I think more as a writer, when I was writing the story

04:11and after seeing this as a reel

04:13and seeing what they had went through

04:14and realising it was a true story

04:15and doing all the research,

04:17but as a writer, I would hear certain lines

04:20that I would write out there.

04:21Whoa, that brings true.

04:23Whoa, that one landed with me.

04:25So I think that a lot of the,

04:27some of the most powerful moments

04:28that are coming through Charity in the time

04:31were actually coming through me

04:32and things that I felt like I wanted to say as well.

04:35I'm sure it must have hit home for you, Carrie, as well,

04:38because we look at characters and people,

04:40I keep saying characters,

04:41but these are real people from those times

04:43and you think of them as being very kind of stoic

04:48and you just see them in interviews

04:50and they're all very kind of proper

04:52in the way that they talk and communicate about it.

04:54But what you brought to Charity

04:56was you kind of brought emotion, I think, in it,

04:59which exists in all of us.

05:01Was it important for you to be able to show that humanity,

05:05which we don't see so much in the newsreels

05:07and we don't often see in the interviews,

05:09but was clearly there at the time?

05:12I think a lot of that was in the writing.

05:14I think Tyler wrote a script

05:15that was not just about soldiers,

05:17it was about human beings

05:19in a really heroic journey

05:22into circumstances that challenged them

05:25to be their best selves.

05:27But every single one of these,

05:28I mean, I think as producers,

05:29we're so proud to be bringing a story

05:31filled with all of these young actresses,

05:33presenting them to the world.

05:34They're all so beautiful and talented

05:36and different, and their characters

05:38represent different points of view

05:39and regions and accents,

05:40and each one of them has their own emotional through-line

05:44and three-dimensionality,

05:46and Charity Adams does as well.

05:49But I think a lot of that was in the writing,

05:51and it is a gift.

05:52I think it's part of why the material works,

05:54because you are emotionally invested

05:57in these women and their journeys.

05:58You understand the stakes of what they're up against.

06:01You don't just see them as soldiers.

06:03You really see them as people.

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