Game of Thrones star Emilia Clarke has opened up about the impact of two life-threatening brain aneurysms on her life and acting career, saying it left part of her brain “missing”.
Speaking on the BBC’s Sunday Morning program, Clarke said it was “remarkable” that she was able to speak after suffering the aneurysms.
Clarke, 35, first revealed she had suffered two brain aneurysms in a piece for The New Yorker in 2019.
The Daenerys Targaryen actress had her first aneurysm in 2011 and another in 2013.
“It’s remarkable that I’m able to speak, sometimes articulately, and live my life completely normally without absolutely no repercussions,” Clarke said.
“I am in the really, really, really small minority of people that can survive that.”
However, Clarke added that the aneurysms eliminated portions of her brain – as revealed by a scan.
“There’s quite a bit missing, which always makes me laugh. Because strokes, basically, as soon as any part of your brain doesn’t get blood for a second, it’s gone,” she said.
“So the blood finds a different route to get around, but then whatever bit it’s missing is therefore gone. It shows how little of our brains we need.”
The actress told the BBC program that her star role in the hit TV show Game of Thrones was helpful in giving her purpose as she recovered from the two aneurysms.
In 2019, Clarke told The New Yorker she had “sipped on morphine” during a Game of Thrones publicity tour before season two, and was in “constant worry” over what brain function she would lose.
She told the BBC she now looks at the life-threatening experiences differently.
“I thought, ‘Well, this is who you are. This is the brain that you have,'” she said.
“There’s no point in continually racking your brains about what might not be there.”
