Emilia Clarke, 35, gave an interview to the program “Sunday Morning BBC” and spoke about the two aneurysms she had between 2011 and 2013. The actress reveals she’s “missing” parts of her brain and that she’s lucky to be alive and able to speak.
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“It was just the most excruciating pain. I kept saying my lines from the series in my head. If you’re vomiting and you have a headache, that’s not good for your brain. I was 22, but it was incredibly helpful to have Game of Thrones sweep me up and give me that purpose”, she said. The actress had her first aneurysm, which caused a stroke and a subarachnoid hemorrhage, shortly after filming the first season of Game of Thrones wrapped in 2011.
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Recovered, Emilia admitted that the aneurysms permanently affected her life. “The amount of my brain that is no longer usable—it’s remarkable that I am able to speak, sometimes articulately, and live my life completely normally with absolutely no repercussions. I am in the really, really, really small minority of people that can survive that”, stated.
The actress then recalled the times she saw scans of her brain after the aneurysms. “There’s quite a bit missing!” she added on the news program. “Which always makes me laugh. “Because strokes, basically, as soon as any part of your brain doesn’t get blood for a second, it’s gone. And so the blood finds a different route to get around but then whatever bit it’s missing is therefore gone.”
In 2019, Clarke founded the charity SameYou for people who, like her, have suffered brain injuries. In 2020, she received the American Brain Foundation’s Public Leadership in Neurology award for her efforts in raising awareness of neurorehabilitation.