Emilia Clarke experienced a complete mental shutdown after suffering from multiple life-threatening brain aneurysms and became convinced that she was meant to die. The actress opened up about her ordeal in a 2019 interview with the How To Fail podcast, detailing her struggles during the filming of HBO's hit fantasy drama Game of Thrones.
Her Battle with Brain Aneurysms
The Me Before You actress underwent surgeries in 2011 and 2013 for aneurysms, which are defined by the Mayo Clinic as bulges or ballooning in the wall of a blood vessel. Experts believe that brain aneurysms form and grow due to blood flow pressure on a weak area of the vessel wall. If an aneurysm leaks or ruptures, it causes bleeding in the brain, known as a hemorrhagic stroke.
Clarke revealed that her first hemorrhage occurred while filming the first season of Game of Thrones. At age 24, she collapsed in a gym in London. She kept her battle largely secretive.
Mental and Physical Struggles
As reported by Fox News, Clarke said, "I was just convinced that I had cheated death, and I was meant to die. Every day, that's all I could think about." Her health deteriorated to the point where she recalls crawling to the bathroom to vomit. "In that moment, I knew I was being brain damaged," she remembered.
After being paranoid about death, she became extremely sensitive to headaches, constantly fearing that it was happening again, as reported by Page Six. Despite her ordeal, she went on to give an interview to MTV.
Surgery and Recovery
Emilia's first surgery was an emergency due to the immediate action required to address the stroke. However, the second surgery failed, leaving her bleeding heavily. "The doctors made it plain that my chances of surviving were precarious if they didn't operate again," she recalled. "This time they needed to access my brain in the old-fashioned way, through my skull."
Clarke, who has since launched the SameYou charity inspired by her journey, described her recovery as gruesome and revealed that bits of her skull had been replaced by titanium.
Remarkable Survival
In 2022, she made headlines with a striking comment to the BBC: "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."
While narrating her experience, Clarke noted that she is part of a very small minority of people who can survive such frailties.
