Wentworth Miller on Being Closeted: 'I Was Feeding a Fantasy'

The Prison Break star spoke to Details about the freedom he feels since coming out.

Miller came out almost a year ago after decling to attend a Russian film festival because of the state-sanctioned homophobia and intolerance there. "As someone who has enjoyed visiting Russia in the past and can also claim a degree of Russian ancestry, it would make me happy to say yes. However, as a gay man, I must decline," Miller wrote to the festival director.

The 42-year-old actor now speaks freely about the decision (he gave an interview to Out late last year).

"I feel more fully expressed," he tells Details. "After Prison Break, I came to grips with the fact that my public persona was in misalignment with how I actually felt. I was out to a handful of people in my twenties, and once I hit 30, I was out to family and friends. But professionally, I was feeding a fantasy. I created this air of 'We don't address that thing.'"

Miller believed many of his fans knew he was gay, but didn't feel ready to be public about it. He now says that most people can still fantasize about people different from them (e.g., a straight woman being attracted to a gay man or a heterosexual man admiring a lesbian), since we mostly just project our fantasies onto actors anyway.

Read the interview here.