Gents Journey Motivational Story Emilia Clarke

Emilia Clarke | A recovery story

Emilia Clarke had to film the second season of Game of Thrones. Brain surgery was not part of the plan. She was at the gym when she felt like an elastic band was squeezing her brain. She crawled to the bathroom and sank to her knees in front of the toilet.

She was trying to recall her lines form Game of Thrones when a woman found her lying on the floor.

Everything became, at once, noisy and blurry. I remember the sound to a siren, an ambulance: I heard new voices, some saying that my pulse was weak. I was throwing up bile.

Emilia Clarke had suffered a life-threatening brain aneurysm. The process was a real pain and the recovery was worse. After three-hour brain surgery, doctors told her she might not make it through the two weeks. A nurse asked her for her name. She wasn’t able to answer.

I wanted to pull the plug. I asked the medical staff to let me die. My job-my entire dream of what my life would be centered on language, on communication without that, I was lost.

The memory loss was temporary. But her recovery was slow and the fear only amplified.

A month later, she was back on set powering through scenes.

I told my bosses at “thrones about my condition, but I didn’t want it to be a subject of public discussion and direction. The show must go on!

She sipped on morphine between press interviews and hid her fatigue behind makeup.

On set, I didn’t miss a beat, but I struggled. Season 2 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.

Emilia Clarke didn’t complain, even when the pain was so strong she couldn’t drown it with drugs.

I was raised never to say, “It’s not fair”; I was taught to remember that there is always someone who is worse off than you.

In 2013, a routine brain scan showed Emilia needed a second surgery. She needed to undergo one more surgery to fully recover from the pain. She was promised a simple procedure. She woke up screaming in pain. The surgery had failed, and she had massive internal bleeding. She needed a third operation immediately.

Doctors drilled through her skull to save her life. A few weeks later, hiding scars with her hair, Emilia Clarke faced thousand of enthusiastic fans at Comic-Con.

She was hit by an excruciating headache.

Back came that sickeningly familiar sense of fear. I thought this is it. My time is up; I’ve cheated death twice and now he’s coming to claim me.

As she stepped off stage, an MTV reporter was waiting for her.

I figured if I’m going to go, it might as well be on live television.

But she didn’t go. She played Khaleesi for the third season, and the fourth, and the fifth…

As her character grew stronger and fiercer, Emilia Clarke learned to surrender to the unknown. She faced her fear head on instead of avoiding it.

And when the eighth and final season came around, she was still alive.

But there was one last thing Emilia Clarke needed to do to truly heal. After keeping quiet for nearly a decade, she opened up about her experience for the first time.

This story has indeed inspired me and reminded me that we never know when it will be our last day. However, we can always live as though today is the last day of our lives!