Before the premiere of the final season of Game of Thrones, star Emilia Clarke (Daenerys Targaryen) opened up about the two brain aneurysms she had while working on the early seasons of the show. Under that kind of pressure, I think most people would understand if she took time off from acting to recover, but Clarke pressed on and turned in the iconic performance we know and love her for today.
And after she did recover, she set to work thinking about how to help other people in her situation. She started a charity, SameYou, dedicating to helping young people recover from brain injury and stroke. And now, she’s partnered with the Royal College of Nursing Foundation to create a specialist nursing program focused on that area:
“It’s something that has been perceived to happen to older people,” Clarke explained on BBC Breakfast. “Therefore, when you’re a young person experiencing it, there’s a whole host of other mental health aspects that largely go unnoticed, and that’s what I care about incredibly deeply because that’s what I experienced.”
I put so much pressure on myself to be feeling normal, and it was that, it was that strain that exhausted me more than anything else. That’s what brought on anxiety, that’s what brought on fatigue. It’s just this fear of, ‘Wait, I’m not meant to be feeling like this. I’m meant to be okay. You’ve told me that I’m okay now, why don’t I feel okay still?’ If I could be able to help a young person who is in the same state that I was in, that I know that they would be able to be lifted and feel lighter in themselves, and that’s just such a goal.
It’s almost surreal now to look back on earlier seasons of the show — Clarke would have been feeling the pain most acutely during filming for season 2 — and think about what Clarke was going through at the time. I think we can all agree that her efforts are incredibly laudable.
Clarke also had some kind words for Game of Thrones costar Kit Harington, who checked into a wellness facility ahead of the series finale to deal with his own mental health issues. “Kit was incredibly open about how he felt about the end of the show for a very good reason,” Clarke said. “He’s brilliant at what he does because he feels that, because he put his heart and soul into it. So yeah, encouraging that kind of behavior across the board I think will just make it better.”
And finally, Clarke discussed what little she knows HBO’s upcoming Game of Thrones prequel show, tentatively titled Blood Moon. “I think there’s something that’s beginning from much before, but I don’t really know too much about it, because it won’t be me. [laughs]”
The heat’s turning down a little bit, for sure, which is lovely because I’m hell bent on living a normal life. [laughs] Sort of, won’t give that up for anything.
Clarke is right that the prequel is set long before the events of the original show, like, thousands of years before. The chances of Daenerys Targaryen — or any Targaryen, really — showing up are close to nil.
And if that means Clarke has more time to focus on her charitable efforts, more power to her.
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