Wentworth Miller reveals suicide attempts as a gay teen

Wentworth Miller: 'Prison Break' star Wentworth Miller shared that he tried to kill himself multiple times while growing up as a gay teen, at a Human Rights Campaign dinner Saturday night.

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Shizuo Kambayashi/AP/File
Wentworth Miller attended the world premiere of 'Resident Evil: Afterlife' in Tokyo, Sept. 2, 2010. Last week, Wentworth Miller declined an invitation to be an honored guest at a film festival in Russia because he is gay. The 41-year-old actor wrote that he is 'deeply troubled' by the attitudes toward and treatment of gay people by the Russian government.

Wentworth Miller said that he tried to kill himself multiple times while growing up as a gay teen and later hid his sexual orientation from the public because he feared it would hurt his career.

The “Prison Break” star confessed at a Human Rights Campaign dinner in Seattle on Saturday night that it took him a long time to get comfortable with his homosexuality.

“Growing up I was a target,” Miller said. “Speaking the right way. Standing the right way. Holding your wrist the right way.”

Every day was a test, the actor said, noting, “when you failed the test, which was guaranteed, there was a price to pay. Emotional. Psychological. Physical.”

Miller said he first tried to kill himself at 15. He waited until his family was away for the weekend and swallowed a bottle of pills.

“When someone asks me if that was a cry for help, I say no, because I told no one,” Miller said. “You only cry for help if you believe there’s help to cry for. And I didn’t. I wanted out.”

Even as an adult, he feared that any admission that he was attracted to men might lead to a backlash.

“I had multiple opportunities to speak my truth, which is that I was gay, but I chose not to,” Miller said.

The 41-year old actor broke that silence last month, coming out by refusing to attend a Russian film festival. He was protesting Russian laws that discriminate against gay people.

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