Emilia Clarke Thinks Of Her Brain Hemorrhage 'As A Good Thing'

Clarke revealed that just after being cast in Game of Thrones, she was diagnosed with "a subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH), a life-threatening type of stroke, caused by bleeding into the space surrounding the brain."

In 2013 she was told that the second aneurysm had "doubled in size" and would need to be surgically removed. This surgery "failed" and required a much more complicated and invasive treatment that lead to her spending a month in the hospital.

"I’m at the point where I definitely think of the brain hemorrhage as a good thing,” Emilia told The Guardian.

"And 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," she continued.

"So a parent dying and brain hemorrhages 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.’”

Honestly, we could all stand to be a little bit more like Emilia Clarke — I'm not even that positive and I've never gone through anything as life-threatening as she has.