Emilia Clarke has shared that she thought she might have been fired from Game Of Thrones following a severe brain injury.
The actor, who played Daenerys Targaryen in the popular fantasy series, suffered a brain bleed back in 2011.
She revealed in an essay she wrote for The New Yorker in 2019 that she had experienced a subarachnoid haemorrhage, caused by a ruptured aneurysm in February 2011. As a result, she underwent endovascular coiling surgery, and was reportedly temporarily unable to say her own name.
She was also surgically treated for a second aneurysm in 2013. The actor was still working on Game Of Thrones when both incidents occurred.
Now, Clarke has revealed that she was, at the time, concerned that her condition may impact her career. Speaking in a new cover interview with The Big Issue, the actor said: “The first fear we all had was: ‘Oh my god, am I going to get fired? Am I going to get fired because they think I’m not capable of completing the job?'”
She shared about the experience: “When you have a brain injury, because it alters your sense of self on such a dramatic level, all of the insecurities you have going into the workplace quadruple overnight.”
Her haemorrhages were reportedly between filming seasons of the HBO series, so she was able to keep her condition relatively private at first. She said about the large team of people working on the show and its large and loyal audience: “Well, if I’m going to die, I better die on live TV.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Clarke opened up about her insecurities surrounding her condition, and the charity she and her mother founded in 2019, SameYou.
“Having a chronic condition that diminishes your confidence in this one thing you feel is your reason to live is so debilitating and so lonely,” she shared. “One of the biggest things I felt with a brain injury was profoundly alone. That is what we’re trying to overcome.”
In other news, the second season of Game Of Thrones spin-off series House Of The Dragon premieres on June 16, and is receiving positive early reviews from critics.