Milauna Jackson portrays Lt. Campbell in The Six Triple Eight. The film, which is inspired by the first and only Women’s Army Corps unit of color to serve overseas in WWII, is now streaming on Netflix.
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.
I spoke with the actress about her experience working with Tyler Perry, how the project chose her, her research approach, what lessons she walked away with, and more. Keep reading for our full conversation!
You actually worked back-to-back with Tyler Perry on A Jazzman’s Blues and The Six Triple Eight. What was that experience like for you and what have you learned from Tyler?
Milauna Jackson: Oh, wow. First, I’ll start with the last question. I think working with him the first time is a part of that, he completely did something that was unexpected from the creative audience. Also for himself, he decided to invest in his own idea, his very first idea, his very first script, the project that didn’t get a lot of love, that didn’t get the actual support that he had hoped when he wrote it and 27 later, it became his film that allowed people to see him in a different light, which is a beautiful thing about art is we can always evolve as creative beings. We’re supposed to. Art is supposed to change us.
We’re supposed to change from working with other artists and I think that that is what prepared him for The Six Triple Eight. I know that Nicole Avant said that that was one of the things that appealed to her as a director, that he had done the Madeas and he had done all of the films that he had done for his entire career and then, to do something like A Jazzman’s Blues was an eye-opener for me to figure out what I may be holding onto in the beginning that I love that I can pull out now because I feel more confident about the idea, because the timing is right. Those are all components that I learned, not just working with him the first time, but the second time, never give up on you.
I think highlighting stories like this one is so important. Can you tell me why you signed onto the project? I’m sure there are many reasons, but why do you think it’s important to be part of projects that highlight these kinds of stories and bring them to audiences?
That’s the thing about history, it’s up to us to share it, no matter what the format may be. I honestly feel like this is one of those projects where I didn’t really need to say yes, it kind of chose me. I was invited to do a table reading by Tyler on a Monday, I was in New York working on Law & Order. This was the first time that I actually was on set while I was at home, but I was on location away from LA and unable to participate in a table reading. I didn’t get invited to a lot of table readings prior to The Six Triple Eight. So when I had to turn it down, I kind of just let it go and allowed God to take over in the way that it typically does, that if it’s mine, it’ll come back.
If it’s meant to be, I won’t have to ruminate over the no or not being available because I was actively working, which is always a great thing, particularly in an industry where you don’t get to pick and choose as much in the beginning as you do as you become more popular. But this particular role was about a real woman and an actual group of real women, a battalion of 855 real women who decided to sacrifice all kinds of things in order to serve their country and themselves in a patriotic way and so, that’s a dream, right? To play a heroine, an everyday heroine who accomplishes the mission by being a great support system to her friend and the captain of the battalion. The character is Captain Charity Adams played by Kerry Washington and I play Lt. Abbie Noel Campbell, who is her XO and second in command.
What sort of research did you do to prepare? I imagine it’s an overwhelming amount of information but you also want to make the role your own, so it is a balance.
Well, that’s my favorite part actually, is the research. It’s the excuse I am allowed to give myself to the work in a very specific, concentrated way and that means that if it’s a period piece like this, it was set in the forties, so I immersed myself in that world in every capacity, creatively. So that’s books, reading novels, watching documentaries, listening to podcasts, going to the museum and seeing what culture was the majority and what was the underbelly culture ‘cause there’s always a balance of both worlds, no matter what era. I like to really use that as my muse to inform me of how I’m gonna approach this particular character because both roles were back to back, A Jazzman’s Blues and The Six Triple Eight were both set during the forties.
So the two women from the South, but what part of the country and what different things were they exposed to that helped to inform them in terms of how they’ll survive during this era, during this period? I wanted to be completely different. I didn’t want to think about Citsy, I didn’t want to think about Georgia, which is where it was set. I wanted to experience a woman who lived in Alabama, who had traveled just locally because this was a career choice and she did it collectively with her best friend, which is very similar to A Jazzman’s Blues. But the difference is that she was leading, she was commanding a group of women and so, I’d never done that in a role before and I wanted to honor her with the utmost grace, but also respect.
And so, I did everything that I could to kind of pull from war films, from war documentaries. One of my cast mates, her name is Jeanté, she played Vera. She actually served in the military. I spent time with her. We worked on my plans, we worked on posture, we worked on how to be able to portray this in a very short period of time because none of us really had a lot of time to be able to, you know, our schedules were so different. All of my scenes were mainly with Kerry. All of her scenes were mainly with the girls, so as much as we could come together, we did.
I imagine as an actress, there are so many things that can get you in the right head space for a period piece, right? The set, the costumes, the props — is there something in particular that really helped inform your portrayal and got you in the right head space in a way that you weren’t expecting? I think it’s all in the small details.
That’s it, you said it, it’s in the details and I love that. I get caught up in the details. As [for] wardrobe, we had layers that would never be seen on camera and yet I committed to putting on every layer. There were thigh highs, garter belts, it’s the corset and then, you have another layer. So there, you have to apply all of these layers in order to protect yourself to be able to put on a uniform and I’m imagining that we as women, we have to do this every day, whether we serve in the military today or we served in the military in the forties. I wanted to honor that. I love that. It didn’t matter if you couldn’t see my socks. It didn’t matter if you could see the stockings.
I absolutely wanted to commit to that extra time that was allotted, so that I could be fully dressed and in uniform. Now I’m carrying the weight that was presented to me with that kind of posture. I believe that’s what contributed to me being able to look that part because there is something about the uniform that also you’re now in the set design of the beauty shop, for instance, there’s a beauty parlor scene and I love that scene. That was one of my favorites because I just hadn’t seen those kinds of props, those kinds of artifacts. The magazines, the hair grease, the way that the curlers worked, all of those things were interesting, but also it showed how we were all committed to building this life and this world and bringing it alive so that it all felt the way that it should feel, which is as if this is a true story.
I’m a firm believer that everything you do, every project, every role, and every story can teach you something. Did you walk away from this movie with any sort of new outlook or something you learned that was unique to this project?
I agree with you. I always walk away with something, right? It’s a new experience, just like a new relationship. You walk away from that connection with something and also having left something. I feel like I did learn from this because this is the first time that I’m in a cast with the caliber of film actors who have had much more experience than I’ve had, Kerry Washington being one, Oprah Winfrey, obviously, but Susan Sarandon. When I found out Susan Sarandon was in this project, it actually opened my eyes to how I’ve been dreaming because I played a practical joke on my mom one time and didn’t think she knew who Susan Sarandon was and the whole joke was completely ruined.
Everything was ruined because I mentioned her name because she knew the impact that Susan Sarandon had had on her life, I thought I was teaching her something and she was teaching me something. Then, to work with someone who I’ve learned from watching Thelma & Louise, one of the most infamous buddy comedy film cult classics, like the sisterhood, that kind of bond, that’s what I walked away with, which is the power of that, the power of sisterhood, the power of teamwork.
One of the producers, her name is Elizabeth Helm-Frazier, and I call her Auntie, she said, and I walked away with this as well, that no matter what I had done prior to this particular project, my life will now be defined by this moment and henceforth. So I really wanted to do an even better job because of that. If this is the benchmark that I’m measured by for my career and the contribution that I’ve made, then it’s worth it. I love that I know I can now move forward having already established this as a strong place in history and not just cinema, but in the telling of women’s stories. It’s prepared me to lead others’ female-driven stories.