Actress Portia de Rossi says she didn't want to be a lesbian.

The 40-year-old de Rossi came out gay in 2005 and married funny lady Ellen DeGeneres in 2008.

But in a revealing interview with Amanda De Cadenet recorded last year for her Lifetime series The Conversation with Amanda De Cadenet, de Rossi says she thought lesbians were “strange.”

“I just didn't want to be a lesbian,” de Rossi said. “I'd never met one for a start and I just thought they were strange and that they hated men and they were very serious and I had these ridiculous images in my head and there were no out celebrities or politicians or anybody that I could look to and go, 'Oh, I could be like that.' There was nobody that I could say, 'I could date her and I want to be like her.'”

“I just kind of thought I don't want to live like this. I don't have to. I don't need to. I just shut down the emotional life,” she added. (The video is embedded on this page. Visit our video library for more videos.)

The Conversation with Amanda De Cadenet premieres Sunday, November 10 on cabler Lifetime.