Acclaimed actor and choreographer Dreya Weber plays stalwart and extremely private former Marine Alexandra Everett in director/husband Ned Farr’s A Marine Story, opening at the Quad Cinema in NYC Nov 5. Weber has played several lesbian characters, including her award-winning portrayal of Jane in film The Gymnast (also directed by Farr).
As a fictional lesbian Marine living under “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell,” Weber has a unique perspective on the controversial Department of Defense policy. She spoke with GO shortly after news of the initial injunction against DADT broke; since then, this political hot potato has been tossed around the judicial system, becoming nightly fodder for cable news and opening a broader dialogue within the LGBT community and amongst the American public at large about the role of LGBT citizens in American public life. (At press time, a stay on the injunction ruling DADT unconstitutional stands, pending appeal by the U.S. Department of Justice.)
Weber seems pleasantly surprised, but cautious, about DADT’s chances of repeal. “It’s been on the table for 17 years, and we hoped when Obama was elected he would eliminate it by Executive Order,” Weber said. “So, we were ready at any time. It’s fantastic news.”
A Marine Story boldly illuminates the human impact of DADT and the experience of LGBT service members under that policy. “Zsa Zsa Gershick’s book, Secret Service: Untold Stories of Lesbians in the Military, helped me understand how much, despite the policy and despite being kicked out under DADT, lesbian service members have a love of their experience and not a bad word to say about the military,“ says Weber. “That was a revelation.”
It is a role as boldly physical as it is dramatic: a famed aerialist, Weber has designed and choreographed tours for top pop artists like Pink, Cher and Madonna, and she certainly has the training and stamina to carry the role of a career Marine in tip-top shape.
A headline indicating DADT has been overturned fills the screen at the end of the film—predicting a positive turn of events for proponents of repeal. “We did that because that’s the world we want to live in, and we decided the movie was going to reflect the world as we believe it could be,” Weber says.