Emilia Clarke is endeared in the hearts of millions after her name-making portrayal of Daenerys Targaryen, aka the “Mother of Dragons,” on HBO’s “Game of Thrones.” But while she was wielding her dragons against her enemies on screen, Clarke was battling her own off-screen. She suffered two brain aneurysms between 2011 and 2013, both of which brought her life into serious danger.
Clarke discovered her first aneurysm while working out with a trainer. “I remember the sound of a siren,” Clarke wrote in a piece for The New Yorker. ” … I heard new voices, someone saying that my pulse was weak. I was throwing up bile. Someone found my phone and called my parents … ” She immediately underwent surgery and, although the procedure was successful, she experienced serious setbacks during her recovery both in the hospital and back on set. “In my worst moments, I wanted to pull the plug,” she continued in her New Yorker piece. “I asked the medical staff to let me die. My job — my entire dream of what my life would be — centered on language, on communication. Without that, I was lost.”
In 2013, Clarke underwent another surgery to remove a growth on one side of her brain with a much more involved procedure. “The recovery was even more painful than it had been after the first surgery,” she wrote. “I looked as though I had been through a war more gruesome than any that Daenerys experienced.” But in classic Khaleesi style, healed herself through rest and charity work with SameYou, which helps provide treatment for those who suffer from brain injuries.
