Tyler Perry on Directing Oprah Winfrey for the First Time in ‘The Six Triple Eight’: ‘I Wanted to Find Something Worthy of Her’

variety.com:

Tyler Perry and Oprah Winfrey have been friends for nearly two decades, but his latest film, Netflix’s “The Six Triple Eight,” marks the first time Perry directed the cultural icon.

The film reveals the untold story of the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion, the only troop of Black women and women of color to serve in Europe during World War II.

The 855 women of the “Six Triple Eight,” as they were known, contributed to the war effort in a critical way — by sorting through a three-year backlog of mail (17 million pieces of it) and dramatically improving morale.

Kerry Washington stars as the troop’s commander Major Charity Adams, while Winfrey portrays famed activist, educator and civil rights leader Mary McLeod Bethune, who was influential in the Roosevelt Administration and advocated for Black women in the armed forces. “I had to find the right thing for her,” Perry told Variety at the film’s press junket on Tuesday afternoon. “All these years we’ve been friends, I knew we’d work together at some point, but I wanted to find something that was worthy of her.