Emilia Clarke Says Two Brain Hemorrhages During ‘Game of Thrones’ Made Her Fear She Would Die

Emilia Clarke is opening up about the two brain hemorrhages she suffered while starring in HBO’s Game of Thrones, saying the experience left her believing she had “cheated death.”

Speaking on the How To Fail with Elizabeth Day podcast, the 39-year-old actress reflected on the emotional and physical impact of the medical emergencies she experienced during the height of the show’s success.

“I was just convinced that I had cheated death and I was meant to die,” Clarke said. “Every day, that's all I could think about.”

Clarke, who played Daenerys Targaryen from 2011 to 2019, said her first brain hemorrhage happened shortly after filming the first season of the fantasy drama. She collapsed during a workout at a London gym after dealing with stress from her sudden rise to fame.

“The closest thing to describe it is imagine an elastic band just snapping around your brain,” she said.

The actress recalled crawling to the bathroom and vomiting from the pain before realizing something was seriously wrong. She said doctors first struggled to diagnose her condition because she was young, but a nurse recommended a brain scan that revealed the hemorrhage.

Clarke said she was determined to recover quickly because she feared losing the role that had changed her life.

“I was so ashamed that this thing had happened and that the people who had employed me might see me as weak,” she said.

She told Game of Thrones creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss about the incident but otherwise kept it private.

Years later, Clarke suffered a second aneurysm while living in New York and performing in a Broadway play. Doctors had been monitoring the aneurysm after finding it during treatment for the first hemorrhage.

According to Clarke, surgery to repair the aneurysm failed, forcing doctors to perform emergency brain surgery. She said her parents were repeatedly told she might not survive.

After the second hemorrhage, Clarke said she struggled emotionally and became fearful whenever she experienced headaches, worrying another medical emergency was happening.

“The biggest thing that happened to me with the second brain hemorrhage was I shut down emotionally,” she said.

Despite the trauma, Clarke said continuing to work helped her cope during recovery.

“Without my work, I don't know what I would have done,” she said.

Clarke also admitted she was too hard on herself during recovery and did not allow herself time to heal.

“I did not take care of myself. I did not give myself any grace,” she said.

In recent years, the actress has become more open about her experience. In 2019, she and her mother founded SameYou, a charity that supports people recovering from brain injuries and strokes.

Looking back on Game of Thrones, Clarke described the experience as unforgettable.

“It was lightning in a bottle,” she said. “That was my youth.”