Emilia Clarke turns 35: the “Game of Thrones” actress’s struggle to win a place in Hollywood

Emilia Isobel Euphemia Rose Clarke was born in London (England) and grew up in Oxfordshire, northeast of the English capital. At the age of 3 she saw a performance of the musical “Show Boat”, where her father worked as a sound engineer; That was the moment when she found out that she wanted to be an actress.

However, Clarke has confessed that, if being an interpreter did not turn out as expected, she would try in some other area as a singer, a skill that she has shown in the movie “Dom Hemingway”.

The Englishwoman studied at the Drama Center London, participated in several theatrical productions and graduated in 2009. This is the same performing arts school, which is part of Central Saint Martins, in which renowned actors such as Paul Bettany, Colin Firth, Tom Hardy, Pierce Brosnan and their “GoT” partner Gwendoline Christie.

Emilia Clarke’s acting debut occurred in 2009 with the television series “Doctors”, since previously she had only appeared in a pair of commercials and a short one for some students of the University of London.

After her success with the role of Daenerys in “Game of Thrones”, Emilia got important roles in different Hollywood productions. There is for example her Sarah Connor character in the movie “Terminator: Genesis” and and Qi’ra in “Han Solo: A Star Wars Story”.

She has also starred in other tapes such as “Me before you” (2016), where she played Louisa; “Last Christmas” (2019) with Henry Golding and “Above Suspicion” (2021) directed by Phillip Noyce; among other blockbuster movies.

Despite her applauded performance, Clarke has also missed a chance to show off some roles like Emily Van Camp in “Captain America: Winter Soldier” and Cara Delevigne in “Suicide Squad”.

The success of “Game of Thrones”

In 2010, Emilia was cast as Daenerys Targaryen for the HBO series “Game of Thrones,” based on the books “A Song of Ice and Fire” by George RR Martin.

Clarke’s character is one of the last surviving members of House Targaryen, who had ruled the geography from the Iron Throne for nearly three hundred years before being overthrown.

Although, the British was not the first choice of the production. Daenerys was to be played by Tamzin Merchant, but left the project after filming the first pilot of what would be one of the most successful television series.

There was another factor that almost prevented Emilia from playing this character. Back then Clarke worked as a waitress and only had one day to prepare for her role.. During the audition, and after interpreting a couple of scenes, they asked her to dance. The British actress did not hesitate to do the robot step and thus convinced the producers.

International critics praised her portrayal of Daenerys Targaryen, who began as one of the supporting roles when used as a piece of merchandise, but with the passing of time she acquired prominence, to the point of being revered, feared and admired.

One of the moments that the English actress enjoyed the least were the nude scenes, where she assures that she felt pressured by the production.

“I had several discussions. For example, I would tell them that the sheet did not cover my entire body and they would reply: ‘You don’t want to disappoint your Game of Thrones fans'”, told in an interview for the podcast “Armchair Expert” by actor Dax Shepard.

During the 8 years in which she gave life to the “Mother of Dragons”, they were learning for Clarke. At the end of the HBO series, the actress acknowledged that she was more relaxed.

“I must admit that everything feels a bit calmer. Now that the series is over, like the reactions from the last season, I feel relaxed. Everything makes more sense now”, she revealed in an interview.

It should be noted that with Daenerys, Emilia has received more than 10 nominations for important awards, among which are the Scream Awards, Emmy Awards and Screen Actors Guild Awards, among others.

The aneurysm that nearly ended his career

All the success that brought the premiere of the first season of “Game of Thrones” could not be fully enjoyed by Emilia Clarke due to a complicated situation: in 2011 they detected an aneurysm in the brain ending the recording of the series.

The English actress was training to stay in shape for the character and began to feel a very strong headache that only increased with the passing of the minutes. For this reason, they evacuated her to a hospital where they told her that had a subarachnoid hemorrhage, which occurs when a blood vessel in the brain ruptures.

That same day they told her that she had to undergo emergency surgery and the intervention lasted about 3 hours, but it was not completely invasive because only a wire entered the brain through the femoral artery.

After her recovery, she was able to resume his daily activities, but with caution since she had another aneurysm that needed to be monitored; what’s more, she suffered an aphasia attack that affected his ability to communicate.

“After a month I came back to my life, but they told me I had a small aneurysm on the other side of my brain. Every day, every minute of my life I thought I was going to die”, reads the letter she wrote for the newspaper The New Yorker in which she made public one of the most difficult episodes she has gone through.

“Just when all my childhood dreams seemed to have come true, I almost lost my mind and then my life,” she added in the post.

A couple of years later, while he was in New York after filming the third season of “Game of Thrones,” had to undergo a second operation to remove the second aneurysm that had increased in size. Because the planned treatment failed, the specialists found it necessary to open Emilia’s skull to perform the intervention.

Both procedures went well and Clarke emphasizes that she was lucky because many people do not survive a ruptured aneurysm, much less remain without sequelae. After this difficult moment in her life, the British woman was able to complete her role in “Game of Thrones” in the best way.

“I feel immense gratitude to my mom, my brother, my doctors and nurses, my friends. Every day I miss my dad, who died of cancer in 2016, and I can’t thank him enough for holding my hand to the end.” She wrote in The New Yorker.

Based on that experience, Emilia began to collaborate with the “SameYou” association, which aims to provide treatment to people recovering from brain injuries.

Her unexpected entrance to Marvel

During an interview with Jimmy Fallon on “The Tonight Show”, Emilia Clarke confirmed her entry into the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) in the new series “Secret Invasion” for Disney +, which still does not have a release date, but confessed that she has fear.

“I’m already scared. The first people at Marvel I spoke to were the security team and I am convinced that there is a man outside my house. I have seen a car parked there for a long time and, I swear to God, it is incognito”, stated in the dialogue with Fallon.

“Secret Invasion” is a fictional series directed by Thomas Bezucha and Ali Selim, based on the comic book story of the Skrulls, aliens who already appeared in “Captain Marvel”, who infiltrate Earth and transform into famous superheroes from Marvel.

The character that Emilia Clark will play in the MCU phase 4 series is not yet known, but she will be the fourth “Game of Thrones” star to join this cinematic universe.