Part Of Emilia Clarke's Brain "Is No Longer Usable" Due To A Stroke And Various Brain Injuries
Emilia Clarke rose to fame when she played the formidable Daenarys Targaryen in HBO's hit show "Game of Thrones," but she was suffering some health issues during filming that most people know nothing about.
If you've seen Emilia on screen or even on social media, you probably see her as a talented, fun-loving actress who loves her job. While all that is true, she has been facing some health issues behind the scenes that hardly anyone knows about. She opened up to BBC One's "Sunday Morning" yesterday about her struggles.
Part of Emilia Clarke's Brain "Is No Longer Usable" Due to a Stroke and Various Brain Injuries
In 2011 when she was filming GOT's first season, Emilia suffered a subarachnoid hemorrhage, which is a stroke caused by bleeding around the brain. She was only 24 years old at the time, but she underwent brain surgery. She even briefly battled aphasia, a condition that causes people to lose their ability to speak. Bruce Willis recently retired from acting because of his battle with aphasia. Emilia even forgot her own name for a week.
She recovered from surgery and her bout with aphasia, but a couple seasons of GOT later, Emilia found out that there was a growing lump on her brain that caused her to have debilitating headaches. Yet again she had surgery.
Emilia is doing fine today and has made a full recovery, but it's not lost on her that she was one of the lucky ones.
"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," she said. "I am in the really, really, really small minority of people that can survive that."
"There's quite a bit [of brain] missing! Which always makes me laugh," she continued. "Because strokes, basically, as soon as any part of your brain doesn't get blood for a second, it's gone. And so the blood finds a different route to get around but then whatever bit is missing is therefore gone."
Since her health struggles, Emilia has raised awareness and assisted charities in raising money to help those who struggle with brain injuries like she did.