Graham Moore won the Oscar for Best Writer, Adapted Screenplay for The Imitation Game at the 87th annual Academy Awards. In his acceptance speech, the 33-year-old writer revealed his own suicide attempt in his teens.

Graham Moore’s Oscar Acceptance Speech

Moore, filled with nervous energy, began his speech by thanking the Academy and Oprah Winfrey, who presented him with the award, and then all of those involved in making The Imitation Game come to life on the big screen – including actors Benedict Cumberbatch and Keira Knightley, and director Morten Tyldum.

The young writer then shifted the focus of his speech to the movie’s inspiration, Alan Turing, the British mathematician and cryptologist who cracked the Enigma code in World War II whose accomplishments were largely overlooked during his lifetime because he was gay.

“Alan Turing never got to stand on a stage like this and look out at all of these disconcertingly attractive faces,” said Moore. “And I do, and that’s the most unfair thing, I think, I’ve ever heard.”

Moore then noted his own struggles with being different that led him to attempt suicide. “When I was 16-year-old, I tried to kill myself. Because I felt weird, and I felt different, and I felt that I did not belong,” he said. “And now I’m standing here, and I would like this moment to be for that kid out there who feels likes she’s weird or she’s different or she doesn’t fit in anywhere. Yes, you do.”

“Stay weird. Stay different,” he added. “And then when it’s your turn, and you’re standing on this stage, please pass the message to the next person that comes along.”

Following his speech on the Oscars stage, many assumed that Moore’s deep connection with the ostracized Turing had to do with being gay. At the Governor’s Ball following the ceremony, Moore clarified to BuzzFeed that while he’s not gay, he identified with Turing’s struggle with depression.

“I’m not gay, but I’ve never talked publicly about depression before or any of that and that was so much of what the movie was about and it was one of the things that drew me to Alan Turing so much,” he told the outlet. “I think we all feel like weirdos for different reasons. Alan had his share of them and I had my own and that’s what always moved me so much about his story.”