They're bringing the story of the under-celebrated US WW2 postal battalion to Netflix, this December. Report by Nelsonj. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn
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00:00I am tired. I want to take a nap.
00:02It's not just about soldiers, it was about human beings.
00:05Without any judgment, I just wanted to tell their story.
00:08Unlike some other folks here, we have the most to prove.
00:12Now is where you show the proof.
00:15This is our mission.
00:18Guys, hello.
00:20Welcome to London.
00:22I wonder, when you release something like this close to Christmas,
00:25what's it like for you guys?
00:27Because you fly to the other side of the world,
00:29you go on the trail of promoting and stuff.
00:32But you've obviously got a mind of family time
00:36and shutting things down and downing tools.
00:39So what's going through your mind at a time like this?
00:42Are you just waiting for that kind of end date
00:45or are you just juggling all the different plans at once?
00:47I can't wait to hear her answer, Carrie.
00:49What's it like for you? Tell me.
00:51So we have a fellow producer, Nicole Avant,
00:55who talks about living her life as a thank you.
00:58And she has made this film, in many ways,
01:01to live her thank you to the women of the 6888.
01:04And I feel like the gift that they've given us
01:08in their legacy deserves to be celebrated.
01:11So I think we're mostly focused on paying forward
01:15the gifts they've given us to the public,
01:18making sure that people know who they are,
01:20that they're celebrating their legacy.
01:22We will have time after the movie's out
01:24to be with our family and friends,
01:26but this moment is really about them and for them.
01:29And so even if we have minutes here and there
01:32where we're like, I'm tired,
01:33it's like what we're up against is nothing
01:36compared to what they were up against
01:39and what they showed up for.
01:40That is so good.
01:41And so we are here for them.
01:43That's a good answer.
01:44Because I'm going, I'm tired.
01:46I am tired. I want to take a nap.
01:48But yes, we're here for them.
01:50We're here for them.
01:53Let's talk about the film.
01:54It got me thinking, which is always a danger.
01:56That's good.
01:57Whenever I watch movies or TV shows
02:00or engage in any stuff like art to do with World War II,
02:03there's a strange comfort in it
02:05because it feels like almost the last global conflict
02:08where there seemed to be no moral or political ambiguity.
02:12You think of it as uniting people.
02:14You grow up watching movies and hearing about it
02:16and you all feel the same kind of thing.
02:20And you get more cynical as you get older
02:22and you learn about more things that go on.
02:24When you tell a story like this
02:27and you uncover truths like this and stories like this
02:31and you kind of learn that,
02:32there's always that moral ambiguity.
02:35Is that the thing that draws you to these stories?
02:38Do you perhaps even mourn the youthful...
02:43Innocence?
02:44Innocence, really, of the way we look at these stories.
02:48For me, The Six Triple Eight in particular,
02:50I approach it from the point of view of just telling their story
02:55and not being in judgment of the characters,
02:57not being in judgment of what they went through,
02:59not being in judgment of any of that,
03:01but just telling their stories.
03:02And especially after meeting Lena King at 99 years old
03:05and seeing her lead the planet at 100,
03:08I felt this tremendous sense of honor
03:13to be able to be the steward of helping her story
03:17and the rest of the women of The Six Triple Eight
03:19get to the world.
03:20So without any judgment, I just wanted to tell their story,
03:24if that makes sense.
03:25How do you guys relate to a story like this?
03:30I mean, Tyler in particular,
03:32because we look at you as a figure,
03:34like quite a fascinating figure in kind of modern entertainment
03:38as someone who's undeniably one of the most successful people
03:40in the history of Hollywood,
03:42but who operates perhaps outside and around Hollywood
03:45a lot of the time,
03:46and you look at the plays that you've got going
03:48and the TV shows and the movies and stuff,
03:50you weren't necessarily anointed by the studios.
03:55You kind of pushed stuff through.
03:57So did you read the story and learn about this story
03:59and you're kind of like,
04:00I see myself in these characters, these people,
04:03and what they had to do and what they had to fight against?
04:06I think more as a writer, when I was writing the story
04:11and after seeing this as a reel
04:13and seeing what they had went through
04:14and realising it was a true story
04:15and doing all the research,
04:17but as a writer, I would hear certain lines
04:20that I would write out there.
04:21Whoa, that brings true.
04:23Whoa, that one landed with me.
04:25So I think that a lot of the,
04:27some of the most powerful moments
04:28that are coming through Charity in the time
04:31were actually coming through me
04:32and things that I felt like I wanted to say as well.
04:35I'm sure it must have hit home for you, Carrie, as well,
04:38because we look at characters and people,
04:40I keep saying characters,
04:41but these are real people from those times
04:43and you think of them as being very kind of stoic
04:48and you just see them in interviews
04:50and they're all very kind of proper
04:52in the way that they talk and communicate about it.
04:54But what you brought to Charity
04:56was you kind of brought emotion, I think, in it,
04:59which exists in all of us.
05:01Was it important for you to be able to show that humanity,
05:05which we don't see so much in the newsreels
05:07and we don't often see in the interviews,
05:09but was clearly there at the time?
05:12I think a lot of that was in the writing.
05:14I think Tyler wrote a script
05:15that was not just about soldiers,
05:17it was about human beings
05:19in a really heroic journey
05:22into circumstances that challenged them
05:25to be their best selves.
05:27But every single one of these,
05:28I mean, I think as producers,
05:29we're so proud to be bringing a story
05:31filled with all of these young actresses,
05:33presenting them to the world.
05:34They're all so beautiful and talented
05:36and different, and their characters
05:38represent different points of view
05:39and regions and accents,
05:40and each one of them has their own emotional through-line
05:44and three-dimensionality,
05:46and Charity Adams does as well.
05:49But I think a lot of that was in the writing,
05:51and it is a gift.
05:52I think it's part of why the material works,
05:54because you are emotionally invested
05:57in these women and their journeys.
05:58You understand the stakes of what they're up against.
06:01You don't just see them as soldiers.
06:03You really see them as people.