Emilia Clarke finds it ‘remarkable’ that she can speak as ‘quite a bit’ of her brain is missing post surgery

Emilia Clarke has opened up about how her life has been since surviving two brain aneurysms. The actor, popular for her portrayal of Daenerys Targaryen on Game Of Thrones, had survived brain aneurysms twice while she was filming for the fantasy drama. She has now said that she finds it remarkable that she can still speak properly. Also Read| Shenaz Treasury diagnosed with prosopagnosia, says she ‘can’t recognise faces’

Emilia has said she is among the rare cases to have survived without any repercussion from brain aneurysms– a weakness in a blood vessel in the brain that balloons and fills with blood, and can cause bleeding into the brain when they explode. Emilia’s first aneurysm burst in 2011 after she had filmed first season of Game of Thrones, and caused a stroke. She had to be operated on after the second burst in 2013 as scans showed the aneurysm had doubled in size.

In a recent appearance on BBC1, Emilia spoke about how a part of her brain is missing since the surgery. She said, “You gain a lot of perspective. 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. I am in the really, really, really small minority of people that can survive that.”

The actor further explained her condition, “There’s quite a bit missing, which always makes me laugh. Because strokes, basically, as soon as any part of your brain doesn’t get blood for a second, it’s gone. And so the blood finds a different route to get around but then whatever bit it’s missing is therefore gone.”

Emilia recently made her debut on the West End stage as Nina in The Seagull. She noted that despite her condition, she has been able to do the two-and-a-half-hour play every single night without forgetting a line. She also said that she has given up wondering what is going on in her brain with a part of it missing.