“Game of Thrones” star Emilia Clarke is healthy and ready for her comeback. Soon her first film in four years will be released.Emilia Clarke is perhaps best known for her role as Daenerys Targaryen in eight seasons of HBO’s monster hit “Game of Thrones”. She has also had major roles in, among others, “Terminator: Genysis” and “Solo: A Star Wars Story”.
Since 2019, Clarke has been a little less visible than during the “GOT” years, devoting himself instead to theater in London. But this year she returns in two projects. Partly with one of the main roles in the Marvel series “Secret Invasion”, which was released this summer, and partly with the sci-fi romance “The Pod Generation”, which is shown in Sweden during the Stockholm Film Festival in November. It is her first major role in four years.
What everyone may not know is that Clarke’s life could have been completely different – she has suffered from severe brain damage, which could have caused but for life, or even death.
On two occasions, in 2011 and 2013, i.e. during her first year as Daenerys Targaryen, Clarke suffered a brain aneurysm , for which she was treated during the series’ production. She talks about the ominous diagnosis herself in a New Yorker article from 2019:
“The diagnosis was quick and ominous: a subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH), a life-threatening type of stroke caused by bleeding in the space surrounding the brain.”
“As I later learned, about a third of patients with SAB die immediately or shortly thereafter. For those patients who survive, immediate treatment is required to seal the aneurysm, as there is a very high risk of a second, often fatal, bleed,” Clarke writes. .
At the age of 24, Emilia Clarke was forced to undergo several brain surgeries.
Emilia Clarke as G’iah in ‘Secret Invasion’
“I’m missing a piece of my brain”
Had it gone really badly, Clarke could have died from the aneurysm, but most survivors are still affected for life. Clarke is among a small group of people who were lucky enough to escape it, according to an interview with the BBC last year.
– It is incredible that I can speak, sometimes articulately, and live my life completely normally without any restrictions whatsoever. I am among the very, very, very small group of people who have survived this.
– A piece of my brain is missing. Which always makes me laugh… That’s the thing about a stroke, as soon as part of the brain doesn’t get blood, it’s gone. The blood may find another way around, but a piece of the brain is gone forever.
Emilia Clarke’s experience with the aneurysm has led her to found a charity, SameYou , which works to help people who have survived brain injuries. Among other things, SameYou works with various British universities to develop new ways to help survivors.
Thankfully, Emilia Clarke is today in good health, and as I said is ready for a comeback in front of the camera with both a film and a TV series this year.
Her superhero role as the Skrull G’iah in “Sceret Invasion” can be seen on Disney+, and her upcoming romantic sci-fi comedy ” The Pod Generation” about artificial pregnancies will be shown at the Stockholm Film Festival on November 9. Watch the trailer below.
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