Following brain damage, Emilia Clarke remembers being afraid of dying on public television.
Following brain damage, Emilia Clarke remembers being afraid of dying on public television.
Emilia Clarke’s career and life were put in jeopardy due to her horrific experiences with multiple brain injuries.
The 37-year-old actress talked candidly about the long-term effects of two aneurysms she had in 2011 and 2013, describing how they severely damaged her sense of self and increased her fears at work in an interview with the UK publication The Big Issue.
The Game of Thrones actor said, “When you have a brain injury, all of the insecurities you have going into the workplace quadruple overnight because it alters your sense of self on such a dramatic level.”
The initial worry that everyone of us had was, “Oh my God, am I going to lose my job? Are they going to fire me because they don’t think I can do the job? Clarke thought back.
She was afraid that while she was on stage, another brain hemorrhage might happen from the pressure and stress of performing. “Well, if I’m going to die, I better die on live TV,” she recalled thinking.
Despite these difficult moments, the former cast member of Me Before You now sees her rehabilitation from a brain injury as a source of strength, stating, “It has given me a superpower.”
Following the completion of filming the first season of Game of Thrones, Clarke experienced her first aneurysm in 2011, which resulted in a subarachnoid hemorrhage and a stroke.
As she described in a 2019 column for The New Yorker, she became seriously unwell during a gym session and needed emergency brain surgery.
Amazingly, two weeks after the procedure, she could barely recall her own identity.
About The Author
