WATCH: How Tyler Perry Helped The Cast Prepare For 'The Six Triple Eight'

essencemagazine

Tyler Perry’s groundbreaking film honors the unsung legacy of the all-Black female battalion in World War II, highlighting how Black women have long redefined excellence and innovation in America.

Transcript

00:00I'm pretty sure you get this question a lot, like how did you prepare for this role? But with this

00:03being rooted in history, was there any research that you had to do? Or just how were you able

00:09to tap into the historical context of your role? Well, Tyler created a really fertile ground for

00:16us to work together as actors, because he did a ton of research. We say the film, I mean,

00:21he says the film is like 90% accurate. We say like 95, 97. It's really so accurate. He takes

00:28some creative liberties at the end of the film, really, because he wants to honor these women in

00:33a way that they were not honored historically. But I think he created a space by sharing this

00:40script with us, where we understood how much research was done. So we could tap into some

00:45of the research he had done. We could, I mean, Ebony met the woman that she plays,

00:51you should talk about that. Yeah, I was very intimidated. And I don't mind saying I do not

00:57mind saying that it was very intimidating to think that I was walking into a space of a woman

01:03who at the time that I met her was 100 years old. But I was feeling that from the point of view of

01:09her 100 right now, but I was Lena at 17. I was Lena before she became the soldier. I was Lena

01:16before she knew how strong she was and how brave she was. And she stood by women who taught her

01:22how to do that, and how to not be ashamed of the pain and virtue that she loved. And there's so

01:28many nuances that you see when you see the film, and I hope everyone does this Friday. It's like

01:33five minutes, so pick this up. But no, meeting her as well and seeing how much grace and poise

01:39and just joy that she had after living and fighting in World War II in a way that she

01:45didn't contribute to segregation, to Jim Crow. So all of these eras that we learned about,

01:50we didn't learn about 6-888, but we learned about a lot of these eras that she lived through. And

01:55she's still smiling. She outlived both of her husbands. She outlived both of her children.

02:00The woman is still smiling. She's still joyous. That to me is the greatest thing that I've ever

02:04seen. I said, if I can take a little bit of that and bring it as a film, I will.

02:10That's what I said. That's what I told myself.

02:11What she did so beautifully.

02:14Yes. Yeah. For those of us who couldn't, you know, I wasn't able to meet Charity Adams, but

02:20she wrote a really beautiful memoir that, and a lot of the details from her memoir are actually

02:24in the film. Tyler does a beautiful job weaving in a lot of her journey. Ebony's character,

02:30person, it's weird calling them characters because they're real women, but the woman that

02:34Ebony plays is really our entry into the film. And she, Tyler spent so much time interviewing

02:41Ms. Lena Derricott King about her experience. And sent me some of her videos, by the way,

02:44which was some of my material presented as well. Some videos between them that are not posted

02:49anywhere, but just into the conversation. Sacred, sacred. And one of the things that

02:53Ms. King talked about was how special Captain Charity Adams was to the women. And so I'm so

03:02grateful that I kind of get to enter the film through Lena's eyes, through her experience,

03:07and you get to see her impact on these young soldiers who were finding themselves and finding

03:14their purpose and coming together. So I really am grateful to Charity Adams, not only for her

03:20service, but also for writing her memoir, for telling her stories that we haven't as historical

03:25document. And I got to watch archival footage and talk to people who worked with her and loved her

03:31and knew her. One of the living survivors at the time was Romay Davis was her driver. So she was

03:36with her all day, every day as a member of the battalion. So I got to talk to her. So it was,

03:41we really, Tyler created a space where he was like, get everything you can get. He,

03:47in the way that Charity Adams had high expectations for these women because he wanted so much for

03:53them. I feel like Tyler did that for all of us as well. Like he had very high expectations of

03:58us to embody these women to show up for the assignment of celebrating them and telling

04:02their truth. But it's because he, he wanted us to be a part of this really magical journey with him.

04:08And also, I just want to say really quickly, we didn't meet Charity Adams in a way that you think,

04:14but she did come to your time. She did actually introduce herself to you in a special way.

04:19So we, we had this, that's such a beautiful way to put it. We were in my dressing room,

04:26Tyler and I, and we were rehearsing and, you know, going over some of her material.

04:31One of her many monologues. And we got a knock on the door. We came outside and a guy from Transpo

04:37said, I want to show you guys something. We knelt down and there was a trunk.

04:41Ebony was there. She was in our hallway with all of our dressing rooms.

04:45Yeah. The knock I thought was on my door and it was on her door. And then I got nosy.

04:49That was probably Charity knocking too. So we came out and there was a trunk on the ground

04:54and on the side, it said Charity Adams and it was an actual army trunk from World War II. And

05:01inside were items of clothing and notes and like twigs and seeds from her victory garden that I

05:07had read about in her memoir. It was so special. It was like, she wanted us to know that she was

05:12with us and she wanted us, I think it felt like a little bit of pressure. She wanted me to get it

05:17right. She trusted you to get it right. I hope so.

Category

Transcript

Recommended