Emilia Clarke has opened up about her life-threatening brain aneurysm that had her fearing she’d die on TV.
The actress shot to fame as Daenerys Targaryen in the smash hit fantasy series Game of Thrones. But soon after the cameras stopped rolling on the show’s first series, she suffered the aneurysm that triggered a stroke.
In an interview with The Big Issue this week, she told how she was afraid that the stress of going back to work might cause another brain haemorrhage.
Before an MTV interview to promote Game of Thrones she felt as if she was about to suffer another bleed, but carried on anyway. She recalled thinking: “Well, if I’m going to die, I better die on live TV.”
She was also afraid that producers on Game of Thrones – which cost an average £5million an episode to shoot – might decide that a leading actress that had suffered a serious brain injury might be too much of a risk.
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Emilia recalled: “The first fear we all had was: ‘Oh my God, am I going to get fired? Am I going to get fired because they think I’m not capable of completing the job?’ ”
The 37-year-old Brit said the fear that the condition might kill her was almost overshadowed by the worry that it might destroy her career. “When you have a brain injury, because it alters your sense of self on such a dramatic level, all of the insecurities you have going into the workplace quadruple overnight,” she explained.
As well as her star turn on Game of Thrones, which saw her nominated for four Primetime Emmy Award, she’s also featured in three other massive sci-fi franchises. They include Sarah Connor in Terminator Genisys, as Qi’ra in Solo: A Star Wars Story, and as G’iah, the superpowered alien in Marvel’s Secret Invasion miniseries.
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But her brain injury is its own kind of superpower, because it’s changed her perspective on life. She explained: “Every momentous experience brings more empathy for people… the bigger your empathy, the bigger you are the more aware you are, and the more your eyes are wide open.”
There were dark times where she was on the brink of giving up. A second brain bleed in 2013 was much worse than the first. Emilia had to have a titanium plate inserted in her skull, and have a drain temporarily fitted in her head: “I thought I had used up al my strength to overcome the first one, and it was harder to feel hopeful,” she says.
Recovery was long and hard, and the glamorous Hollywood star couldn’t even wash her hair for months. But she feels fully recovered now, joking that the traumatic injury has only cost her her sense of direction, and her good taste in men.
Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
