It turns our Emilia Clarke is just as fierce as her character, Khaleesi, on the HBO hit show “Game of Thrones.” The actress is missing parts of her brain as a result of two brain aneurysms.
“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,” Clarke said during an interview on BBC’s Sunday Morning.
The first occurrence, in 2011, came just as Clarke wrapped the first season of “Game of Thrones.” The “Me Before You” star recalled feeling like an elastic band was squeezing her brain. She was taken to the hospital, where an aneurysm was discovered and removed.
Then in 2013, Clarke learned that a mass discovered earlier on the opposite side of her brain had doubled in size. Surgery to remove this mass failed and led to bleeding in her brain. Clarke described waking up from the operation screaming in pain.
“I had a massive bleed and the doctors made it plain that my chances of surviving were precarious if they didn’t operate again. This time they needed to access my brain in the old-fashioned way—through my skull. And the operation had to happen immediately.”
Clarke detailed her experiences in an essay for the New Yorker entitled “A Battle for My Life” She also created SameYou, an organization that offers recovery services for stroke and brain injury survivors.
Despite the aneurysms, Clarke continues to make her mark in Hollywood. She’s set to join the cast of Marvel Studios’ “Secret Invasion” on Disney Plus.
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