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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.
  • By Brent Lang Reuters

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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