Prison Break star Wentworth Miller: ‘I tried to kill myself at 15 because I was gay’
British-born American actor Wentworth Miller, who came out as gay in a letter sent to the St Petersburg International Film Festival last month, has revealed that he attempted suicide at 15 by swallowing a “bottle of pills” because he was gay.
At a Human Rights Campaign dinner in Seattle on Monday, Miller spoke to an audience on coming to terms with his sexuality young teenager.
He said: “Growing up I was a target. Speaking the right way, standing the right way, holding your wrist the right way.
“Every day was a test and there was a thousand ways to fail. A thousand ways to portray yourself to not live up to someone else’s standards of what was accepted.”
He added: “The first time I tried to kill myself I was 15. I waited until my family went away for the weekend and I was alone in the house and I swallowed a bottle of pills.
“I don’t remember what happened over the next couple of days, but I’m pretty sure come Monday morning I was on the bus back to school pretending everything was fine.”
Miller also discussed remaining in the closet at the height of his career.
He said: “When I thought about the possibility of coming out might impact me and the career that I had worked so hard for I was filled with fear.”
Miller came out in an open letter to the St Petersburg International Film Festival.
In the letter, he wrote: “I am deeply troubled by the current attitude toward and treatment of gay men and women by the Russian government. The situation is in no way acceptable, and I cannot in good conscience participate in a celebratory occasion hosted by a country where people like myself are being systematically denied their basic right to live and love openly.”
