Game Of Thrones star Emilia Clarke came forward about her brain aneurysms eight months ago – and has now revealed she was scared to tell people because she feared for her job.
The actress, who to fans over the world is Mother of Dragons Daenerys Targaryen, had two aneurysms that required brain surgery at the beginning of her reign on the show.
Speaking on the Table Manners’ Podcast, Emilia explained to Jessie Ware and her mum that the condition could have killed her, but she daren’t tell the production team what was wrong.
She told them: ‘With the first one, I couldn’t let them know what had happened until they knew that I wasn’t going to die.
‘So it took us three weeks to be like, “sorry for not answering the old emails. I’ve just been a bit, you know… I’m fine! By the way, everything’s great. I’m totally fine. I’m going to be back to work, nothing wrong’s with me. I’m all good.”’
When asked why she felt the need to hide the truth from the team by Jessie’s mum Lennie, she said: ‘I just was, and consistently, so scared of being fired for whatever reason.
‘So I was just like… that was just me, more than [them]. I had no idea how taken care of I was.’
Thankfully the star has been able to recover, and while she initially struggled to tell people for fear of being considered ‘an actress with a sob story’, Emilia finally told her story to the New Yorker as she launched a charity in light of her diagnosis.
‘As soon as I did, I was like “wow, that’s actually a real weight off”, because I’d get interviewed all time and they’d be like “what’s happened to you in your life?”’
‘I’d be like “nothing I’ve just been doing this TV show, that’s it”. Like there’s nothing I can speak to.’
‘Getting to say it was kind of liberating and frightening all the same time,’ she added.
Emilia would later go on to have a second aneurysm while on set of Game Of Thrones – working through one of her most memorable scenes before going to hospital again.
Game Of Thrones is available now on NOW TV, Sky Atlantic and available on DVD and Blu-Ray.
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