Emilia Clarke Recalls Surviving Two Brain Haemorrhages During Game Of Thrones: 'Convinced That I Had Cheated Death'

Emilia Clarke revealed she suffered two brain aneurysms while filming Game of Thrones. Her first brain haemorrhage was after completing the show’s first season. The second one was while working on a Broadway project in New York, which was revealed during a routine brain scan.

Emilia Clarke on undergoing 2 brain surgeries due to aneurysms

During her appearance on How to Fail with Elizabeth Day, the actor shared details about her medical emergencies and a brain surgery that went wrong. Clarke also revealed how the health scare took an emotional and psychological toll on her mental health.

Clarke, who played Daenerys Targaryen in GOT, suffered her first brain haemorrhage while doing a plank exercise at the gym. She was immediately rushed to the hospital.

Sharing details of her experience, she said, “The night before, I had a horrible headache and felt restless and anxious. At the gym, the closest thing to describe the feeling is imagining an elastic band snapping around your brain with insane pressure. I crawled to the bathroom and was vomiting profusely with an unbearable headache. In that moment, I knew I was being brain-damaged…No one knew what was wrong; they initially assumed I was on drugs, which often happens to young people having a stroke or brain bleed. Eventually, a nurse whose husband was a brain surgeon asked if I had received a brain scan, and I was rushed to a specialist hospital.”

Following the haemorrhage, the actress was trying to reassure HBO executives and the creators of the show that she would recover and continue shooting for the show.

She felt “ashamed” after the incident, and also had the thought that her employers would feel she was “weak” or “something that could be broken.” She only informed the showrunners, David Benioff and DB Weiss, about her health crisis and kept it private from the rest.

Later, a scan revealed that an existing aneurysm, detected during her initial treatment, had grown to nearly three times its original size. She was advised to undergo surgery, but it went wrong, causing a tear that led to severe bleeding. Doctors then performed an emergency operation to save her life.

Following the surgery, it was the hardest part for Emilia. She said, “I was just convinced that I had cheated death and I was meant to die. That’s all I could think about. It was the opposite of ‘I survived. I feel great’. It was like I’m not meant to be here, this is going to come and get me. It just cuts you off from being able to engage with the outside world, because you’re walking around knowing that your body has failed you, your brain has failed you. Your perception of yourself has failed you and no one else can see it.”

She lived in constant fear, even if there was a headache.