Miles Heizer is still trying to wrap his head around the fact that he is starring in a Netflix series.
And it’s not just any series. The 31-year-old out gay actor toplines the eight-episode coming-of-age dramedy “Boots” as Cameron Cope, a high school senior who is grappling with being gay when he unexpectedly enlists in the U.S. Marines with his straight best friend (Liam Oh) to escape his chaotic family life.
The show is based on “The Pink Marine,” Greg Cope White’s 2015 memoir about joining the Marines in 1979 when LGBTQ people were barred from serving in the military.
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“A guy came up to me the other day at the gym and said, ‘Are you in “Boots”?’ I was in the Coast Guard and I’m gay,’” Heizer tells me over tea on a Friday afternoon at Botanica Restaurant and Market in the Silverlake neighborhood of Los Angeles. “He didn’t have any trouble with it, but it’s cool to hear people tell their stories.”
Heizer, whose breakout role in “13 Reasons Why” saw his character Alex Standall come out as queer during the final season, isn’t the only out gay actor in “Boots.” Angus O’Brien plays a very frat boy-acting enlistee and Max Parker portrays a closeted drill sergeant.
“It is also wild to have a team of predominantly queer people behind the scenes,” Heizer says. “To have so many queer people and women coming together to make this show, I think is very rare.”
Heizer came out publicly when he was 19, but getting there wasn’t always easy. He says he and his sister Moriah were raised by their single mom and grandmother in “a super conservative, religious family.” They lived in Kentucky before moving to Los Angeles when Heizer was 10 years old to support his acting career.
“I had a very unfortunately classic gay coming-out story. It was a nightmare and everyone was upset,” Heizer says. “I’m lucky my sister, who’s my best friend, could not have cared less and was very there for me. My friends around me were super supportive and things have gotten so much better in that regard with my family over the years. But at the time, I definitely had the old Christian upbringing.”
The series updates “The Pink Marine” timeline to just four years before Pres. Bill Clinton’s controversial Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy was enacted in 1994 to allow LGBTQ people to serve, but only as long as they didn’t reveal their sexual orientation. DADT was officially repealed in 2011, allowing LGBTQ individuals to serve openly.
However, “Boots” comes at a time when Pres. Donald Trump signed an executive order on the first day of his second presidency banning trans people from serving. “When the show started filming [in 2023], I don’t think we intended to have this message that’s so relevant to serving today,” Heizer says. “But then of course, as we’re making it, all these things started happening. It’s very interesting that ‘Boots’ shines a light on what’s actually happening now, even though the show is set in 1990. It’s upsetting.”
Politics aside, Heizer admits he was initially anxious about landing his first starring role in “Boots.” But that all changed when he filmed the head-shaving scene. “We were all anticipating it for so long because we shot all the pre-boot camp stuff beforehand when we still had our hair,” Heizer says. “I had fear because I didn’t know what’s under there. I could only imagine I was going to look bad. But once they did it, there was a sense of safety because when you start a TV show, I think we all have that worry that they’re going to recast me, they’re going to see the playback and recast me. So once they shaved our heads, we were all like, ‘Alright, I don’t think we’re going to get fired.’ Then it was the most freeing feeling because I didn’t have to worry about what my hair looked like.”
Heizer is hoping for a second season. “There are a lot of stories to tell, from more of Greg’s different experiences in the Marines to Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell to when it was repealed,” he says. “I would do it for 10 seasons if they let us.”
“Boots” Season 1 is available on Netflix.
