Today Wentworth Miller is out and proud and stepping up to defend LGBT folk in Russia (see: Miller’s open letter to the St Petersburg Film Festival), but it wasn’t always so. Speaking at the Human Rights Campaign Gala in Seattle this weekend (September 7) Miller recounted his difficulty as a teenager to come to terms with his sexuality – a struggle, which ultimately led him to attempt suicide.

"The first time I tried to kill myself I was 15," he recounted, via E!News.

"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 days, but I'm pretty sure come Monday morning I was on a bus back to school pretending everything was fine. And when someone asked me if that was a cry for help, I say no, because I told no one."

Wentworth Miller, Fox TCA Summer Party 2008
Miller recounted his own turbulent experience at the HRC gala.

Bullying and teenage suicides are becoming increasingly pressing issues in the US, so a large part of Miller’s speech was devoted to his traumatic high school experience. During the speech, 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."

Wentworth Miller, Hollywood
The actor had come out to his family and friends.

He also recounted the secrecy, which initially plagued his acting career. Miller only publicly came out with his letter last month. While he had concealed the truth and even publicly denied any gay rumors, his family had apparently known all along. "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.

"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."

Well, it might have taken some years, but we couldn’t imagine a more admirable way for Mr. Miller to make the difficult transition.

Wentworth Miller, Fox Upfront 2008
But his public admission was another matter entirely.