Emilia Clarke Said Having Two Brain Aneurysms And Losing A Parent Helped Her "Make Something Sensible" Of Her Success

"I'm at the point where I definitely think of the brain haemorrhage as a good thing," Emilia said in a recent interview. "It gave me a perspective that I wouldn't have had otherwise."

Emilia Clarke has been incredibly open and honest about the two life-threatening brain aneurysms she experienced that, at their worst, left her wanting to "pull the plug".

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In a candid essay for the New Yorker back in March, Emilia revealed for the first time that she'd suffered a subarachnoid haemorrhage in 2011, a sometimes-fatal stroke that a third of patients can die from.

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However, despite the severity of the aneurysms, Emilia was back on the Game of Thrones set six weeks later, although she described the time as her "worst" on the HBO show.

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She wrote: "I told my bosses at Thrones about my condition, but I didn’t want it to be a subject of public discussion and dissection. The show must go on! Season two would be my worst. I didn’t know what Daenerys was doing. If I am truly being honest, every minute of every day I thought I was going to die."

Last month, Emilia highlighted the "unsung heroes" who'd helped get her back to full health, revealing that paramedics in the back of the ambulance actually made her laugh to keep her calm.

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"There I was, bleeding in the brain, and there we were in this ambulance having an absolute giggle," Emilia said. "They were so gracious."

Now, in a recent interview with the Observer, Emilia has once again opened up about the aneurysms that changed her life, revealing that she now thinks of them as a "good thing" because it gave her perspective.

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"I'm at the point where I definitely think of the brain haemorrhage as a good thing," Emilia said. "I was never destined to be the 'young actor goes off the rails' type, up and down the gossip columns."

She continued: "Having a brain haemorrhage that coincided precisely with the beginning of my career and the beginning of a show that became something quite meaty, it gave me a perspective that I wouldn't have had otherwise."

As for why she waited eight years to go public about her brain aneurysms, Emilia said the decision was at least partly down to not wanting to make herself vulnerable.

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"It was nerve-racking to share it, to be honest. It always is, when you make yourself vulnerable," she said, adding that she waited because she "didn’t want people to think of [her] as…sick."

Emilia went as far as to say that both the aneurysms and the death of her father in 2016, as well as an influx in obsessive fans, helped her to "make something sensible" of the newfound success she'd received off the back of playing Daenerys Targaryen.

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"I'm quite a resilient human being," Emilia said. "So a parent dying and brain haemorrhages coinciding with success and people following you in the street and getting stalkers — you're just, like, 'Well let's try and make something sensible of it.'"

You can read Emilia's full interview in the Observer here.