ComingSoon spoke to Ebony Obsidian about starring in The Six Triple Eight. The actress discussed her role in the film, working with Tyler Perry, and more. The World War II drama is now streaming on Netflix.
“The Six Triple Eight is inspired by the first and only Women’s Army Corps unit of color to serve overseas in WWII. Despite facing racism and sexism – and grueling working conditions – they were committed to serving their country with honor and distinction. Given an extraordinary mission and united in their determination, these unsung heroes delivered hope and shattered barriers. Written and directed by Tyler Perry, the film stars Kerry Washington as Major Charity Adams, the commanding officer of the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion,” says the synopsis.
Tyler Treese: You’re playing a real-life hero in this, Lena King. She sadly passed away earlier this year at the age of 100, which is incredible. Did you get the chance to meet her and talk with her?
Ebony Obsidian: Absolutely, yeah, I did. I met her. She passed away just shy of her 101st birthday, by the way. So I met her on her 100th birthday for the first time. And that was incredible, to spend time with her and her family and so many people who loved her, her friends who are 20, 30 years younger than her, by the way. That was a life-changing experience to see someone who has lived that much life and overcame that much but also kept space for so much joy and excitement and curiosity for life. That was beautiful.
Yeah, I saw some panels with her, and her recall was just instant.
She’s so sharp.
She still was all together. When you’re portraying a real person, obviously that adds a weight to the performance, but how did that like impact your creative process?
You know, I was a lot more interested in who Lena was as a person, as opposed to stressing myself out with what position she has in the film. For me, it was, “This is a 17-year-old girl who knew nothing about the world, let alone World War II. This is a woman who was not yet a woman but would become by the end of the film, and by the end of that chapter in her life because of Charity Adams, because of all of the women in the battalion.” So it just really resonated with me on a deeper level that I think by the time that I met her, had those conversations with her, any stressors or pressure that I had really was not related to how magnificent this film is, and I’m very proud of it, but really was nailing down who is she? What’s her aura? I think she’s actually, she was very similar at 100 as she would have been at 17 because there’s a genuine purity to her that I can only imagine only existed throughout her entire life.
That’s really wonderful, and you did a great job portraying that. You’ve obviously worked with Tyler Perry before on Sistas, but this is very different in tone, and I think this movie’s gonna really surprise people, I think. So how was it seeing him tackle such a serious historical topic and do it with such grace?
Absolutely, yes. We did. We worked together on another show, and that was, I mean, technically speaking, I had worked with him over a hundred times because it was episodic. So I had a very clear sense of the type of creator that he is and how clear he is on his goals when he is telling a story and when he does decide to take it on.
So when he brought this script to me, I knew that he wanted to honor these women and that that was the mutual thing that everyone involved in the project was going to have. We want to honor these women. We want to give them the voice that they never had and give them the celebration that they never had all of those years ago. It was different in the sense that, a series is shot differently, of course, than a film. But one, you have the complete story. Another, you kind of learn the story as you go, but either way, he’s a very, very clear creative as a producer, as a writer, as a director, and so that was the same.
Thanks to Ebony Obsidian for taking the time to talk about The Six Triple Eight.