Wentworth Miller is being applauded for taking a stand against the Russian government's anti-gay laws — and coming out as gay himself in the process — but now the handsome Prison Break star reveals that his sexuality wasn't always quite so well embraced.
The actor, who penned a moving open letter to the St. Petersburg Film Festival rejecting their invitation because of the country's draconian anti-gay laws, admits he attempted suicide several times before coming out. "The first time I tried to kill myself I was 15. I waited until my family went away for the family and I was alone in the house and I swallowed a bottle of pills," he revealed to a large audience at the Human Rights Campaign dinner in Seattle last week. "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."

"Growing up I was a target," he continued. "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," he said. "A thousand ways to portray yourself to not live up to someone else's standards of what was accepted."

The television actor also admitted that it made him nervous to come out early in his career. "I had multiple opportunities to speak my truth, which is that I was gay, but I chose not to. I was out privately to family and friends — publicly, I was not." He continued: "I chose to lie — when I thought about the possibility of coming out, how that might impact me and the career I worked so hard for, I was filled with fear."

Now, Miller is joining a growing number of celebs who are setting a good example by openly discussing their sexuality, and their struggles to come out. Raven-Symonè and NBA player Jason Collins are just two notable stars to come out in recent months.
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(Photo: Kevin Winter/Getty Images)