Game of Thrones' Daenerys Targaryen actor Emilia Clarke opened up about surviving two brain aneurysms.

In an interview with the BBC's Sunday Morning, Clarke recalled her experience surviving two life-threatening brain aneurysms while working on the hit HBO series. "It was the most excruciating pain," the actor said, "It was incredibly helpful to have Game of Thrones sweep me up and give me that purpose."

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The actor revealed the severity of her health troubles and explained the long-lasting damage to her brain, recalling the time she saw her brain scans. Clarke further explained, "There's quite a bit missing, which always makes me laugh...Strokes, basically, as soon as any part of your brain doesn't get blood for a second, it's gone, so the blood finds a different route to get around, but then whatever bit is missing is therefore gone."

Emilia Clarke first opened up about her difficult health situation in 2019, revealing the struggle behind her on-screen performance. Taking on the responsibility of shouldering the critical role of Daenerys Targaryen on a global attention-getting TV series left Clarke under immense stress. In fact, she collapsed due to a stroke during a gym session while preparing to film the first season. Due to the severity of the incident, Clarke had to undergo emergency surgery, which saved her life but left her with a case of aphasia for a week. After several weeks of recovery, the actor returned to the Game of Thrones set.

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Clarke's first aneurysm occurred when she had just finished filming Season 1. While working on the show's third season, she would suffer a second aneurysm. However, despite what she has gone through, Clarke feels grateful to have survived. "The amount of my brain that is no longer usable -- it's remarkable that I am able to speak, sometimes articulately, and live my life completely normally with absolutely no repercussions," Clarke said. "I am in the really, really small minority of people that can survive that."

Inspired by her experience of suffering from brain injury and strokes, Clarke created SameYou, a charity dedicated to helping brain injury and stroke victims. The actor also seems to have put this difficult experience behind her and positively accepted her current health condition. "I thought, 'Well, this is who you are. This is the brain that you have.' So there's no point in continually wracking your brains about what might not be there," Clarke said.

Game of Thrones is available to stream on HBO Max.

Source: BBC Sunday Morning via Variety