Back in the late 1990s, Andy Parker, then a closeted gay teenager, brought a Marine Corps recruiter home. His aim? To persuade his parents that enlisting was a sound decision.
“I think that was me trying to prove something or escape something or run from who I was,” Parker confessed. His parents, he added, “weren’t opposed” to the idea, “they were just perplexed.”
Parker never actually joined the military. However, more than two decades later, while developing projects with Sony Pictures Television, he received a copy of “The Pink Marine” (2016). This memoir was penned by Greg Cope White, who, as a closeted teen in 1979, had indeed joined the Marines.
Reading “The Pink Marine” felt like encountering “the road not taken,” Parker explained. He eagerly seized the chance to adapt this coming-of-age narrative for the screen.
The result is “Boots,” which premiered Thursday on Netflix, overcoming years of delays caused by the Covid-19 pandemic and Hollywood strikes. Parker serves as the creator and co-showrunner of this comedic drama, notably one of the final series to be executive produced by the legendary Norman Lear, who passed away in 2023 at 101 and had mentored Cope White for decades.
“This show was really the little engine that could,” remarked co-showrunner Jennifer Cecil, known for her work on “The Umbrella Academy” and “Private Practice.” “Everybody believed in this show so much — and you don’t see that all the time.”
“Boots” chronicles the journey of a fictionalized Cope White, portrayed by Miles Heizer as Cameron Cope, a young gay recruit who enlists in the Marines in 1990 alongside his straight best friend. Cameron must endure the intense physical and mental pressures of boot camp while meticulously concealing his sexuality during an era when being gay in the military was strictly illegal. (The notorious “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, which allowed gay, lesbian, and bisexual individuals to serve provided they remained silent about their identity, was enacted in 1993 and remained in effect until 2011.)
The series arrives at a time when the situation for queer people in the U.S. armed forces is once again uncertain. In February, the Defense Department implemented a Trump administration policy that mandated the discharge of transgender troops from the military.
“Without becoming a polemic,” Parker stated, “I think what we’re trying to do is shine a real light on the personal cost of these policies. We get to see what it does psychologically, spiritually, emotionally to people who have to distort themselves or lie or put themselves away or be shunned from an organization that they love and a country that they want to serve.”
Cope White privately revealed his sexuality to friends and family in the early 1980s while still serving. “The Marines definitely gave me the confidence to come out,” he noted, acknowledging the irony.
His initial collaboration with Lear was as a writer on the short-lived 1990s sitcoms “The Powers That Be” and “704 Hauser.” They connected over their shared veteran status — Lear served as a technical sergeant in the Army Air Forces during World War II, while Cope White spent six years as a communications specialist in the Marines before transitioning to a career in television writing.
“Norman loved the sergeant element of my life, and he loved exploring stories of ‘other,’” Cope White recalled. “His years of mentorship and swapping stories with me about his own time in the military really gave me that foundation to start writing my book.”
As “Boots” progressed at Sony in collaboration with Lear’s Act III Communications production company, Lear was deeply involved “thematically” in shaping “the spirit of the show,” Parker said, and he even saw an early cut of the first episode.
Although the series draws inspiration from Cope White’s memoir, it features altered names and storylines. The setting was also shifted from 1979 to 1990, aiming to precede “don’t ask, don’t tell” while hinting at the Persian Gulf War for a potential second season, according to Parker.
The showrunners were determined that “Boots” would not be a “drab and bleak” military drama, Parker emphasized. Its vibrant soundtrack includes period-appropriate anthems from artists like Wilson Phillips and George Michael, and composer Jongnic Bontemps incorporated military objects such as ammo cans and bullet casings into his lively percussive score.
An extensive casting search ultimately led to Heizer, who was previously known for supporting roles in the NBC drama “Parenthood” and the Netflix series “13 Reasons Why.” Given that the role required Cameron to be utterly unprepared for boot camp initially, Heizer’s natural lack of machismo proved to be a valuable asset.
“I get auditions where it’s like, ‘Jennifer Lawrence’s husband with two children,’ and I’m like, ‘You guys, it’s not going to happen,’” Heizer joked. “And then I got this audition that’s like, ‘scrawny, gay loser,’ and I’m like: ‘This could be something. I might actually fit this one.’”
Despite the 31-year-old actor’s age difference from his 18-year-old character, revisiting the mindset of a closeted teenager wasn’t challenging for Heizer, who came out at 19.
“Sadly, it’s so easy for me to jump back there,” he admitted. “But the thing that I love about Cameron’s journey is that it isn’t about him discovering that he’s gay. He’s aware he’s gay. He’s OK with it. The interesting thing is this conundrum of learning all these new things about yourself at the cost of hiding this other part of yourself.”
Cope White, now 65, recalled how he occasionally felt pressured to conceal his sexuality when he first entered the entertainment industry. While attitudes in Hollywood have evolved, casting Heizer, an openly gay actor, in a role based on his own personal story still felt groundbreaking, Cope White said, as he once believed he would never “live to see a time when we’d be able to cast an out gay actor to play a gay character.”
For Cope White, the most vital element of his memoir to translate to the screen was the depiction of his platonic bond with his straight best friend, Dale. Newcomer Liam Oh, 24, portrays the character, named Ray in the series.
“A lot of times there’s this secret longing that is coded into relationships between gay and straight characters,” Oh observed. However, Cameron and Ray “are not attracted to each other,” he clarified. “They just love each other.”
The series primarily focuses on Cameron and his all-male platoon, with women appearing in smaller supporting roles, including a formidable commander (Ana Ayora) and Cope White’s eccentric mother, Barbara (Vera Farmiga). Acting opposite Farmiga was initially “absolutely terrifying,” Heizer confessed. “She’s someone that I’ve loved and looked up to for such a long time.”
Filming predominantly took place in New Orleans, where a decommissioned naval base served as the stand-in for the Marine Corps training facility on Parris Island, S.C. Shooting in the Louisiana heat posed additional difficulties, particularly for the large cast often in full uniform, carrying heavy packs and weapons during outdoor scenes.
To guarantee an accurate portrayal of the boot camp experience, the writers’ room included three Marine veterans, among them Cope White, and three more Marine veterans acted as dedicated military advisers for authenticity. (Parker noted that any vetting by the military advisers aimed for accuracy, not to seek “permission.”)
The showrunners were well aware of how “Boots” might be received by audiences with preconceived notions about the U.S. armed forces, whether positive or negative. Parker insisted he “never wanted this to be a propaganda piece for the military,” but also didn’t want it to be an “assault against it.”
“Part of what the show is about is who gets to be counted as an American, who gets to be included in the story,” he concluded. Lear’s “canon of work was about expanding who gets to be part of this story, and I hope that we’re doing that in a winsome way.”