‘Prison Break’ star Wentworth Miller attempted suicide as gay teen

As a special guest at the Human Rights Campaign Seattle Gala on Sept. 7, “Prison Break” star Wentworth Miller talked about his difficult childhood, including a suicide attempt at age 15.

In a video obtained by TMZ, the 41-year-old actor says:

“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 were a thousand ways to fail, a thousand ways to betray yourself, to not live up to someone else’s standards of what was accepted, of what was normal. … 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. And when someone asks me if that was a cry for help, I’d say, ‘No.’ You only cry for help if you believe there’s help to cry for. And I didn’t need it, I wanted out.”

Miller remained closeted for years, but finally decided to come out last month in a letter declining an invitation to attend the St. Petersburg International Film Festival. He rejected the offer, saying that he could participate in a celebratory event in a place where “people like myself are being systematically denied their basic right to live and love openly.”