'I was afraid I was going to get fired from 'Game of Thrones': Emilia Clark

Emilia Clarke has revealed details about the two strokes she suffered in 2011 and 2013, when she was 25 and 27 respectively. Then she was just at the height of her popularity, starring in the hit HBO series “Game of Thrones” (2011-2019) as Rhaenyra Targaryen. According to the actress, the incident “dramatically” changed her appearance, so she was afraid that the producers of the project would just fire her and find another actress in her place.

The first incident happened to Emilia right after the end of filming in the initial episodes of “Game of Thrones”, as a result of which she lost the ability to speak and almost went into a coma. After the second one, she required surgery as the area of the lesion had doubled in size. Clarke said she was lucky to be among the “very small number of people” who managed to “survive without serious consequences”.

“When you have a brain injury, it radically changes your sense of self on such a dramatic level that all the insecurity you feel in the workplace quadruples overnight.” “The very first fear that we all have is, ‘Oh my God, am I going to get fired?’ Am I going to get fired because they don't think I'm capable of completing this job?”.

In February, Emilia and her mother received MBE awards for their philanthropic work in the field of brain disorders. They founded the SameYou organization when the actress discovered the low level of rehabilitation for patients in this field, having faced it directly after two strokes.

Clarke was diagnosed with a subarachnoid hemorrhage resulting from a brain aneurysm. The condition usually affects people between the ages of 45 and 70. Survivors of this condition face constant fatigue, sleep problems, headaches, visual impairment and loss of mobility. But, as Emilia said, she managed to come out of this condition without any consequences. The actress underwent surgery to remove blood clots, had a titanium plate placed in her skull and was prescribed medication to reduce pain. But according to Clark, in this situation she feared “not death anymore, but being fired”.

In the end, her fears of being fired from Game of Thrones were not realized and she managed to “last” all eight seasons that the show aired on HBO. According to Emilia, she now lives a more realized life than she would have without the strokes. “I don't worry about failure - I thrive on failure! If something goes wrong, I always think I can deal with it. It hurts, it's scary, but it makes you feel like you're omnipotent.”