*“Game of Thrones” star Emilia Clarke has revealed that she suffered from two brain aneurysms that almost caused her to leave the hit HBO fantasy series.
In a new essay for The New Yorker, the actress noted that she had “never told this story publicly” but the time was finally right.
The first brain aneurysm happened when Clarke was 24 years old, shortly after filming season one of the GoT. She says it was during a training session in North London when a severe headache brought her to her knees. Clarke was forced to stop the workout and rush to the restroom.
“I reached the toilet, sank to my knees, and proceeded to be violently, voluminously ill,” she recalled. “Meanwhile, the pain—shooting, stabbing, constricting pain—was getting worse. At some level, I knew what was happening: my brain was damaged . . . To keep my memory alive, I tried to recall, among other things, some lines from Game of Thrones.”
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In 2011, just as “Game of Thrones” was about to become a worldwide phenomenon, Emilia Clarke faced the first of two life-threatening brain aneurysms. Clarke tells her story for the first time: https://t.co/fltWfpFBVa pic.twitter.com/5LJ9k4bniI
— The New Yorker (@NewYorker) March 22, 2019
She was taken to the E.R and the subsequent brain surgery caused some temporary language impairment.
“My job—my entire dream of what my life would be—centered on language, around communication. Without that, I was lost,” Clarke writes.
During her darkest and most painful moments in the hospital, she was certain death was at her door — and she wanted to die.
“Even as I was muttering nonsense, my mum did me the great kindness of ignoring it and trying to convince me that I was perfectly lucid,” Clarke writes. “But I knew I was faltering. In my worst moments, I wanted to pull the plug. I asked the medical staff to let me die.”
During the first procedure, doctors saw she had a second, smaller aneurysm that doubled in size over time. She required a second operation, and this was after season three of Thrones. Clarke says this surgery was the worst.
“The procedure had failed. I had a massive bleed and the doctors made it plain that my chances of surviving were precarious if they didn’t operate again,” she writes. “I do remember being convinced that I wasn’t going to live.”
Doctors even told her mother that if she survived the second surgery, her daughter would be severely brain damaged.
Read more of Emilia Clarke’s New Yorker interview here.
The finale season “Game of Thrones” airs April 14.
A newly released poster may hint at who ends up on the Iron Throne. Take a look at the pic below. See those eyes? As noted by glamour.com, HBO put the throne on top of Drogon, one of Daenerys’ dragons. Could this mean that she ends up ruling over the seven kingdoms?
Got fans, sound off in the comments below.
HBO is also already in the process serving fans a GoT prequel and potentially other spinoffs in the near future.
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