Former Prison Break star Wentworth Miller took to Instagram to reveal he was diagnosed as autistic last year.
“Preceded by a self-diagnosis. Followed by a formal diagnosis,” the 49-year-old actor explained, adding, “[It was] a shock. But not a surprise.”
Miller noted that he has too much learn about the disorder to bear the mantle for it.
“There is a now-familiar cultural narrative…that goes ‘Public figure shares A, B and C publicly, dedicates platform to D, E and F,” he maintained. “[T]hat’s not necessarily what’s going to happen here….Right now my work looks like evolving my understanding. Re-examining 5 decades of lived experience thru a new lens. That will take time.”
He continued, “I don’t want to run the risk of suddenly being a loud, ill-informed voice in the room. The #autistic community (this I do know) has historically been talked over. Spoken for. I don’t wish to do additional harm.”
Miller said he wouldn’t change his diagnosis, noting that he’s realized “being autistic is central to who I am. To everything I’ve achieved/articulated.”
The actor also thanked “the many (many) people who consciously or unconsciously gave me that extra bit of grace + space over the years, allowed me to move thru the world in a way that made sense to me whether or not it made sense to them.”
Miller revealed he was gay in 2013, and also revealed that being cyberbullied about his appearance at one point left him suicidal.
In 2019, he revealed he wouldn’t return to a Prison Break reboot, and that he was “done” playing straight characters. This season, he reprised his role on Law & Order: SVU as ADA Isaiah Holmes in an episode that revealed Holmes had been bullied because of his sexuality.
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