Emilia Clarke has released never-before-seen photographs taken during her recovery from a life-threatening brain aneurysm in 2011, when she was just 24. The Game of Thrones star recently revealed she suffered two brain aneurysms while filming the fantasy drama, the second of which nearly killed her.
Now 32, Clarke appeared on CBS Sunday Morning, recalling the dark place she went to after surgery. She said: 'The first time it was difficult, with the second one I found it much harder to stay optimistic. I definitely went through a period of being... down - putting it mildly.'
Clarke explained that when a part of your brain is starved of blood for more than a minute it dies, which happened after her second aneurysm. Doctors told her it could affect her concentration or peripheral vision. 'For a very long time, I thought it was my ability to act…that was a deep paranoia,' she said.
Returning to set for season two, Clarke said she had no time to question her own mortality because she was too busy playing a 'badass character who walked through fire'. She added: 'That became the thing that just saved me from considering my own mortality.'
In an earlier essay for The New Yorker, Clarke revealed she had her first aneurysm after finishing season one. She was diagnosed with a subarachnoid haemorrhage, a life-threatening stroke. 'In my worst moments, I wanted to pull the plug. I asked the medical staff to let me die,' she wrote.
