Emilia Clarke Didn't Think She'll Live To See The Game of Thrones Finale
This might’ve been the scariest celebrity near-death experience to date.
Sometimes even money, fame, youth, and the means to get the best medical care in the world are unfortunately not enough to keep a person healthy. The human body is fragile, and our health does not take into account celebrity status when any kind of dysfunction occurs.
The gift of coming out of a health scare alive, however, makes you rethink all of your values, including your views on the importance of your career. For Emilia Clarke, that moment was motivated by the brain aneurysm that appeared when the actress was just twenty-four years old and in the midst of a very busy celebrity life.
To understand what it takes to maintain the status and jobs that come with being a celebrity, you can take a look at any autobiography. The life of an actress is not glamorous all the time: it consists of hardcore gym sessions, lots of auditions, rehearsals, and interviews sprinkled in the middle. A schedule like that can get exhausting.
And having brain surgery in the middle of it doesn't help. Not only was it extremely frightening to undergo such a procedure, but the process of recovery required a great deal of physical and mental strength. Clarke recalled the experience in detail in an essay for The New Yorker:
“One night, after I’d passed that crucial mark, a nurse woke me and, as part of a series of cognitive exercises, she said, “What’s your name?” My full name is Emilia Isobel Euphemia Rose Clarke. But now I couldn’t remember it. Instead, nonsense words tumbled out of my mouth and I went into a blind panic. I’d never experienced fear like that—a sense of doom closing in.”
With the help of medical professionals and loved ones, the actress was able to recover within a month and return to filming the second season of what would become one of HBO's most recognizable and beloved titles.
At the time, Clarke didn't want the unnecessary publicity surrounding her and this story, but now, looking back, we can appreciate her dedication twice as much.
If you want to pay your respects to Emilia Clarke and her iconic Game of Thrones character Daenerys Targaryen, you can binge-watch the series on MAX, Hulu, or Amazon Prime Video.
Source: The New Yorker