Ebony Obsidian says we shouldn’t really feel unhealthy if we don’t know that her newest undertaking, Tyler Perry’s The Six Triple Eight—now streaming on Netflix—is predicated on some of the unimaginable real-life occurrences in American historical past.
“Tyler shared the script with me, and I assumed it was fiction. I requested if this was a narrative he’d written,” the actress advised EBONY. “He stated, ‘No, that is historical past, and we’re telling it. Do you wanna be part of it?’”
Obsidian performs Lena Derriecott Bell King, a member of the 6888th Central Postal Listing Battalion, the one all-female, all-Black navy unit to serve abroad throughout World Conflict II. “To embody the expertise of what I by no means bought to learn as a bit of lady and see—oh my goodness—that we served on this means? We meant a lot to so many individuals who by no means knew our names,” she gushed. “That’s one thing that I feel was so prolific in my expertise of this movie.”
The Six Triple Eight co-star Kerry Washington agreed. “I used to be shocked that World Conflict II is essentially the most storied warfare of movie, tv, and novels and that this specific story had by no means been advised,” she stated. “There have been 855 girls of coloration who went abroad to serve. And that I had by no means heard a whisper of it was insane as a result of I think about myself a pupil of the historical past of life.”
Washington, who performs Lt. Col. Charity E. Adams-Earley, stated not figuring out just isn’t our fault. “We don’t at all times do justice by telling the proper tales as a tradition and society. This seems like such a corrective second as a result of we get to inform their story,” she declared. “We get to elevate them up and be sure that when individuals see this movie, they know who the Six Triple Eight are. We see each single identify of each lady in that battalion. And that offers me a whole lot of delight.”
Activist and writer Nicole Avant serves as a producer on the movie. “Producing The Six Triple Eight with Tyler has been one of many highlights of my life. I used to be raised in a family that celebrated and honored victorious Black People,” she shared. “My mother and father made certain that I by no means took with no consideration the shoulders I stand on and jogged my memory that my life ought to be a steady ‘thanks’ to everybody who paved the way in which for me.”
