In a recent interview, Emilia Clarke spoke about her two ruptured aneurysms that occurred during the filming of “Game of Thrones”. Dramatic accidents which she thought would put an end to her participation in the series.
It’s an understatement to say that Emilia Clarke has come a long, long way. A true survivor. The actress revealed by Game of Thrones was the victim, twice, of a ruptured aneurysm during the filming of the series, in 2011 and 2014.
In a recent interview with Big Issueshe returned to these incidents which could have cost her life, thinking that she would be fired from the filming. “When you have a brain injury, because it impairs your self-esteem to such a dramatic level, all the insecurities you feel coming into the workplace quadruple overnight” she comments. Adding: “The first fear we all had was, ‘Oh my God, am I going to get fired? Will I be fired because they think I’m not capable of completing the job?”
“I looked like I had been through a war more horrible than any Daenerys had ever known.”
This is in an article written for the New Yorker in 2019 called A Battle For my Life that the actress revealed that she suffered two ruptured aneurysms during the filming of Game of Thrones.
The first came while she was training at a London gym. A terrible headache at first, vomiting and violent pain followed after a few minutes. Taken to the nearest hospital, she had an MRI.
Verdict: Ruptured aneurysm, a potentially fatal type of stroke caused by bleeding into the space around the brain. “Just when all my childhood dreams seemed to have come true, I almost lost my mind, and then my life.” she said.
Undergoing brain surgery, she woke up with aphasia, unable to remember her name and unable to answer routine questions. “I had never experienced such fear. I am an actress, I need to remember my lines.” A week of intensive care allowed him to regain his speech. But the healing process was very difficult. “In my worst moments, I wanted to pull the plug” she remembered.
Same You via Bestimage
Some time after leaving the hospital, she returned to the Game of Thrones set, but was constantly tired. It was during a routine check-up that doctors detected the formation of a new aneurysm, forcing her to undergo a second brain surgery. “The healing was even more painful than it had been after the first surgery. I felt like I had been through a war more horrible than any Daenerys has ever known.”
In 2022, in an interview with the BBC, the actress returned to this painful moment: “It is remarkable that I am able to speak, sometimes articulately, and live my life completely normally without any repercussions. I am in the very, very, very small minority of people who can survive this.”
In 2019, in the wake of her moving testimony, she launched SameYoua charitable organization whose mission is to facilitate access to treatment and rehabilitation for people who have suffered brain injuries and strokes.