Miles Heiser is still trying to wrap his head around the fact that he’s starring in a Netflix series.
And it’s not just a series. The 31-year-old openly gay actor stars in the eight-episode coming-of-age drama “Boots” as Cameron Cope, a high school senior who unexpectedly joins the Marines with his straight best friend (Liam Orr) to escape his chaotic home life.
The show is based on “The Pink Marine,” a 2015 memoir written by Greg Cope White about joining the Marines in 1979, a time when LGBTQ people were prohibited from serving in the military.
“A guy came up to me at the gym the other day and said, ‘Are you wearing boots?’ I was in the Coast Guard, and I’m gay,” Heiser said over tea at Botanica Restaurant and Market in Los Angeles’ Silver Lake neighborhood on a Friday afternoon. “He had no problem with it, but it’s nice to hear people talk about themselves.”
Heiser, who broke out on “13 Reasons Why” and whose character Alex Standall came out as queer in the final season, is not the only openly gay actor on “Boots.” Angus O’Brien plays a very flat boyish recruit, and Max Parker plays an undercover drill sergeant.
“It’s also wild that we have a team of primarily queer people behind the scenes,” Heiser said. “I think it’s very unusual to have so many queer people and women come together to make this show.”
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Heiser came out publicly at age 19, but getting there wasn’t always easy. He says he and his sister Moria were raised in an “ultra-conservative, religious family” by their single mother and grandmother. They lived in Kentucky, but moved to Los Angeles when Heiser was 10 years old to support his acting career.
“Very unfortunately, we had the classic gay coming out story: It was a nightmare and everyone was upset,” Heiser says. “Fortunately, my sister, who is my best friend, didn’t pay too much attention to me and was there for me. My friends around me were very supportive, and in that regard, my relationship with my family has gotten much better over the years. But back then, I was definitely raised as an old-school Christian.”
This series updates the timeline of “The Pink Marine” 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 do not disclose their sexual orientation. DADT was officially abolished in 2011, allowing LGBTQ individuals to serve openly.
But “boots” appear around the time of Pres. On his first day in office, Donald Trump signed an executive order banning transgender people from holding office. “When we started filming the show[in 2023]I don’t think we had any intention of conveying a message that would be as relevant as it is today,” Heiser said. “But of course, as we were making it, things started to happen. It’s really interesting that Boots is set in 1990 and yet shines a light on what’s really going on in the present. It’s frustrating.”
Politics aside, Heiser admits that he was initially apprehensive about taking on his first starring role in Boots. But everything changed when he filmed a scene where he shaves his head. “We’ve all been anticipating this for a long time, because we did all the pre-boot camp filming in advance when we still had hair,” Heiser says. “I was scared because I didn’t know what was underneath. I could only imagine that I was going to look like the bad guy. But once they did it, there was a sense of relief, because when you start a TV show, I think everyone would have the fear that they’re going to recast me, that they’re going to recast me after seeing the playback. So after they shaved my head, we were all like, “Okay, I don’t think we’re going to get fired.” After that, I felt the most free because I didn’t have to worry about what my hair looked like. ”
Heiser is hoping for a second season. “There are so many stories to tell, from Greg’s various experiences in the Marine Corps to when ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ was discontinued,” he says. “If they let me, I’ll do it for 10 seasons.”
‘Boots’ Season 1 is available on Netflix.
