Emilia Clarke is best known for playing the dragon queen Daenerys Targaryen on Game of Thrones, a role she played for eight straight seasons. Her performance as Daenerys was confident and powerful, so it came as a surprise to people when Clarke revealed in 2019 that she'd suffered a stroke early on in the show's life, while she was preparing to film season 2.
Clarke told few people at the time about what happened to her, which was extremely intense. "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," she recently told Big Issue, thinking back on this turbulent time. "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?'"
Obviously, that didn't happen; Clarke worked with the producers on a schedule that worked for her, but she feared another hemorrhage brought on by the stress of working on such a big set. "Well, if I'm going to die, I better die on live TV," she quipped.
Clarke survived the series and went on to enjoy a thriving career, appearing in everything from romantic comedies like Me Before You to appearing in Marvel series like Secret Invasion, not to mention capping off the end of Game of Thrones. She also drew on her experiences with brain injury to create a charity called SameYou, which works to develop better mental treatments for brain injury survivors.
Clarke is done with Game of Thrones, but her influence lives on; HBO's Game of Thrones prequel series House of the Dragon revolves around people from the Targaryen family, and many fans can't help but think of Daenerys whenever they see one of those silver-blonde wigs. New episodes of House of the Dragon air Sundays on HBO and Max.
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