Kerry Washington felt the spirit of her character while filming war drama The Six Triple Eight: 'She was with us'

Kerry Washington was in her dressing room in Atlanta, rehearsing a monologue for her role as Army officer Charity Adams in war drama The Six Triple Eight, when she received a serendipitous knock on the door.

A crew member from the transportation department secured something special from an auction: a trunk that belonged to Adams herself, filled with personal belongings — clothes, notes, seeds from her garden. “It was unbelievable,” Washington recalls to Entertainment Weekly. “It felt like she was with us. It felt like she was letting us know she was proud of us and wanted us to keep doing what we were doing.” 

It also lent to the mounting pressure to “get it right,” says the star and executive producer.

Streaming now on Netflix, the film, written and directed by Tyler Perry, tells the true story of the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion, the first and only division comprised of Black women to serve overseas during World War II. Led by commanding officer Charity Adams, the Six Triple Eight were deployed to Europe to tackle an insurmountable task: sorting and delivering over 17 million pieces of backlog mail that had accumulated over 10-plus months, most of which were damaged or undeliverable due to poor storage conditions. Back home, families of those soldiers worried sick. “No mail, low morale” became the battle cry for the 6888th, who got the job done against all odds, having endured racism, sexism, and atrocious living conditions. 

The ensemble cast also features Oprah Winfrey as civil rights activist Mary McLeod Bethune, Sam Waterston as President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Susan Sarandon as First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, and Dean Norris as Adams’ adversary, General Halt. 

It was only recently that the unsung heroes, whose contributions were swept under the rug following the war, were recognized for their contributions: President Joe Biden awarded surviving members with the Congressional Gold Medal in 2022. One such member was Lena Derriecott King, whose perspective anchors the Netflix film. Viewers are introduced to the battalion after a grief-stricken Lena (played by Ebony Obsidian) enlists in the Army after losing her beloved Abram (Gregg Sulkin) on the frontlines. The real King, who died in January at 100, served as a consultant on the film.

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“I didn’t know what to expect,” Perry tells EW of meeting King for the first time at her Las Vegas home, when she was 99. “I didn't know what frame of mind she would be in, but she was as sharp as a tack. She talked to me about Abram and being in the back of the rumble seat, and how she loved him driving her and how close they were and how he died. Her memory was amazing. I had a historian that I worked with and he verified how factual everything she was saying was.”

That historian is Kevin M. Hymel — whose article “Fighting a Two-Front War” served as a basis for the film. He helped bring the story to screen, pouring over every article and archival footage they could find. Adams herself, who died in 2002, also penned a memoir, One Woman’s Army, that proved invaluable. Washingon hung up photocopies of memoir pages, as well ashung in Washington’s dressing room during production, as did pictures. “I talked to people who knew her and had worked with her and loved her,” shares Washington. “I tried to submerge myself in as much of her legacy as I could. I really wanted to make sure that the performance I was giving was something that was beyond any kind of work I'd ever done before.”

Perry knew Washington would be his Charity Adams at the get-go. “Every time I wrote a line for Charity Adams, I saw Kerry Washington,” says Perry. “She said she wasn't sure how we're going to do a story about the mail. But after she read the script, she really got it.”

The adaptation stays true to life, though Perry took some poignant creative liberties toward the end. Namely, when the battalion returned from the war and were saluted by fellow white male soldiers. “That didn’t happen. They weren't celebrated,” says Perry. “Most of them were ashamed that they had been in the military; not because of what they had done but because of the rumors that were spread about them — that the only reason they were sent to Europe was to be concubines for the Black soldiers. There was shame. A lot of their own children didn't even know they served. They never even talked about it.”

Perry and Washington soldiered on to put the story on the frontlines. “I always say, ‘Oh, I didn't have a chance to meet Charity Adams,' and Ebony always corrects me and says, ‘No, no, no. She came to you,’” reflects Washington. “We want to celebrate and lift them up. I’m finding that the film resonates with Black women, but also with anybody who’s ever felt underestimated or doubted or pushed aside. When these systems doubt you, it can cause you to doubt yourself. They just never fell victim to any of that.”

The timing of the film, Perry says, feels particularly apt amidst our fraught political landscape post-Nov. 5. “We didn't know any of this was going to be going on when I sat down to write this,” he says. “It’s lending to inspiration, to people having hope, so I think the timing is perfect. I'm hoping more of these kinds of stories get an opportunity to be told.”

The real King was even able to watch a cut before her passing. “When I found out her health was failing, I got a rushed cut to her,” says Perry. “She cried as she watched it. Every image took her back. She said how inspired [and] thankful she was that I was able to let the world know that Black women contributed.” Adams’ children also watched an early screening of the film at the Military Women's Memorial in Arlington, Va. “It was so exciting to share it with them,” says Washington. “I’m just happy that they were proud.”