Emilia Clarke has admitted she thought she would be fired from Game Of Thrones after she suffered a brain bleed.
The 37-year-old starred in the fantasy series as Daenerys Targaryen but suffered a brain bleed while working out in a gym in north London in 2011.
Clarke didn’t want to go public with news of her injury, and kept it largely a secret from her colleagues on the show.
But she admitted she was worried bosses would think she wasn’t capable of doing her job after the brain bleed.
Doctors also discovered a second brain haemorrhage in 2013, while she was still acting on the series.
In a new interview with the Big Issue, she discussed the difficulties of returning to work after her brain injury.
Clarke’s Big Issue front cover
Clarke said: “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.
“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?'”
Clarke was back working within weeks of her first brain bleed, but she recalled fearing that she was going to die of another haemorrhage because of the stress and pressure of working in front of thousands of people and cameras.
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She added: “Well, if I’m going to die, I better die on live TV.”
After recovering from her injuries, Clarke and her mum Jennifer Clarke set up a charity to help people with brain injuries.
The mother-daughter duo were even made MBEs earlier this year for their work setting up the charity SameYou.
Clarke previously spoke out about how “fragile, sensitive and scared” she felt after her brain injury.
She said she was shocked to find out how understaffed rehabilitation services are – with rehab since becoming a focus of her charity.