Hollywood tends to portray life in the military through one of two lenses: propagandistic sagas or scathing polemics. Boots, a Netflix original series premiering Oct. 9, takes a decidedly more irreverent approach. The show follows Cameron Cope, a closeted teen played by Miles Heizer (13 Reasons Why), as he and his best friend enlist in the Marines in 1990, when being gay in the military was still illegal. It’s a coming-of-age story that is occasionally sassy, deeply heartfelt, and fueled by a soundtrack of pre-Nineties deep cuts. “The pitch was Full Metal Jacket as written by David Sedaris,” says Andy Parker, Boots’ creator.
I became friends with Parker two years ago, during an uncertain chapter in Boots’ path to the screen. He sold the project — inspired by The Pink Marine, Greg Cope White’s memoir about being gay in the military in the 1970s — in 2020, with the television icon Norman Lear producing. But shortly after filming began in 2023 in New Orleans, production was halted due to the writers and actors strikes; then, that December, Lear died. While many original projects were axed during that period, Boots finally resumed shooting last year — a delay that resulted in the show debuting at moment where Hollywood has become increasingly averse to programing that might trigger the avenging thirst of Donald Trump and conservatives.
On the eve of the show’s premiere, Parker and I sat down to discuss how he hopes Boots can thread the needle of a polarized culture, along with the timely question that animates the series: What, exactly, does it mean to be man? Our conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity.
Let’s start at the beginning. This is your first time as a creator and showrunner, the dream for any writer in Hollywood, and I know it hasn’t been the smoothest ride. How did this project come to be?
Sony, in a deal through Norman Lear’s company, had optioned The Pink Marine by Greg Cope White, and I just responded to it. Once upon a time, I was a closeted gay kid growing up in Glendale, Arizona, in an evangelical conservative household, desperately trying to run away from who I really was.
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And, much like Cameron, you also considered the military at one point?
Yeah, I wanted to make sure nobody would know I was gay, and actively sought out the Marine Corps in particular. What better way to prove your masculinity than to join the Marines? That is the institution in our culture that gives you that stamp, the approval that says you are now a man. I was wooed by their amazing advertising — specifically that famous 1990 chess commercial, which I got to use in the pilot. To this day I think it’s so funny because that ad is so gay.
How so?
Go watch it on YouTube. It’s like an operatic pageant with an evil queen! I guess they were trying to go for these closeted gay kids?
But, ultimately, you didn’t enlist?
I was about to sign on the dotted line. Then there was some voice inside me that knew that was not the right reason to do something like this. Still, I wonder how I would have measured up.
What I found compelling watching the show is that, on one level, it’s a very specific — and very funny — portrait of a closeted gay teenager making the choice you backed away from. But it also really felt like a show about something more universal — a hot-button question being wrestled over in the culture today. How do we define masculinity?
Well, we didn’t know the political climate we would be in in 2025 or the resonance this would perhaps end up having. But the issue of masculinity and exploring that — that was absolutely something that I was really interested in. And Cameron’s not the only one dealing with this question in the show. Every single other recruit is coming in with something to hide, something to fear, something that they’re ashamed of. Whatever it is that they’re contending with, it’s going to get exposed.
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Yet the evolution you see in a lot of the characters isn’t just that they morph into the archetype of the strapped warrior. They become a lot more emotionally intelligent—
And a lot more sensitive. There is the Marines poster of what masculinity looks like — we all know that guy. I wanted to peel that back, to find these moments in the midst of the toughening up that we know bootcamp is supposed to do, where people had to be vulnerable to survive, and where they were having moments of connection.
Today’s political climate is, to put it mildly, very different from 2020, when you sold this show. We now have a Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, who has been vocal about his feelings that gays should not be in the military, who has banned transgender people from service, and who recently stripped gay-rights pioneer (and Navy vet) Harvey Milk’s name from a Navy ship. Do you have concerns about Boots riling up the right or hitting this third rail that no one seems to quite understand?
Some, sure. But I’m really hoping that people don’t see this show as having a political message. This is not a polemic. What I’m hoping is that viewers will feel a question as they watch. Like, is that OK for us to treat people who want to serve, to give their lives to these missions, like they’re not worthy of that?
Well, that is kind of political, no?
I think it shines a light on the psychological and emotional and spiritual toll of what these kinds of discriminatory policies do — not only to the people involved and how they’re affected, but also to the institutions themselves, how the institutions are sort of corrupted.
Hollywood these days feels really fearful of enflaming conservative ire. Jimmy Kimmel was just pulled off the air for comments that would hardly have resulted in a scandal in a different time. I’m curious if you’ve had to wade through any of that paranoia and edginess in rolling out Boots.
Look, there’s something deeply earnest and hopeful about the show. It’s a depiction of disparate people with different motivations coming together and finding a sort of brotherhood. Frankly, there may some people who don’t find it cynical enough. So, no, it’s not like anybody’s scrambling to reposition the show to make sure that there’s not something controversial here. But I suppose these days anything can be controversial, so perhaps even empathy and unity can be controversial. Who knows?
This is the last show produced by Norman Lear, who died when production was on hold. He found a way to push the envelope inside massively popular sitcoms like All in the Family and The Jeffersons. Do you see Boots, which is dedicated to his memory, in that same lineage?
The legacy of his work was about expanding the American story. Who gets to be included in our story? Who gets to be counted as an American? It’s a fraught question in this moment because there are those who want to contract the definition instead of expand it. So to the extent that the show is politicized, I suppose it’s that the show is asking that question as well at a tense moment.
Speaking for myself, I came away liking the Marines a whole lot more than before I watched the show.
Interesting! Once I got into the research for this, I realized I could never had made the show about the Army or Navy or Air Force. It had to be the Marines.
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Why’s that?
They are just the most peculiar and idiosyncratic, a truly odd bunch. They’re the most masculine, the warriors, but they have the most uniforms. They’re sort of dandies in a way, right? I find those contradictions to be so wonderful.