Emilia Clarke: 10 Interesting Facts About The Game of Thrones Star

Many know Daenerys Stormborn of the House Targaryen for her many titles: : First of Her Name, The Unburnt, Queen of the Andals and the First Men, Khaleesi of the Great Grass Sea, Breaker of Chains, and Mother of Dragons. Yet, you probably don’t know much about the actress behind the character.

Since her rise to fame, Emilia Clarke has become a sensation and arguably the most popular actor on the Game of Throne TV show.

Here are some interesting facts you probably don’t know about the actress:

1. Emilia Clarke is the second person to star as Daenerys Targaryen. The role was originally played by Tamzin Merchant in the unaired pilot of Game of Thrones. However, after a few issues with the script, the actress was replaced with Emilia Clarke.

2. At first, she had a hard time with all the nude scenes that were required of her in the show. This as well as an infamous rape scene made her early days on the show quite difficult.

“Once, I had to take a little time out,” she spoke with Esquire about filming the first season. “I said I needed a cup of tea, had a bit of a cry, and was ready for the next scene.”

3. Her love for acting manifested right form a young age. When she was 3, she attended a show which captivated her. From that moment on, she knew she wanted to act.

“We sat her in the front row in house seats—Showboat at the London Palladium. She sat on my lap the whole way through, transfixed by the whole thing,” Emilia’s mum said.

4. She is the second Game of Thrones Actress to play Sarah Connor in the Terminator franchise. The role was first played by her costar, Lena Headey aka Cersei Lannister. Emilia played the role alongside Arnold Schwarzenegger in Terminator Genisys.

Speaking on her role as Sarah Connor, she said:

“My brother forced me to watch Terminator quite young, so I was a bit traumatised by the apparent ketchup in most of the scenes. I revisited it as I was getting older, and then in preparation for playing Daenerys (in Game Of Thrones), I watched Sarah Connor back, in order to kind of embody some other strong women on screen. So it was funny when this audition came around. I was like, ‘Yes, definitely!’”

5. She once confessed that if she didn’t become an actress, she would have tried being a singer, an architect, or possibly a graphic designer.

6. Unknown to many fans, Emilia Clarke suffered two brain aneurysms that nearly claimed her life during Game of Thrones filming. Writing about the ordeal on The New Yorker, she said:

I was sent for an MRI, a brain scan. The diagnosis was quick and ominous: a subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH), a life-threatening type of stroke, caused by bleeding into the space surrounding the brain. I’d had an aneurysm, an arterial rupture. As I later learned, about a third of SAH patients die immediately or soon thereafter. For the patients who do survive, urgent treatment is required to seal off the aneurysm, as there is a very high risk of a second, often fatal bleed. If I was to live and avoid terrible deficits, I would have to have urgent surgery. And, even then, there were no guarantees.

I was taken by ambulance to the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, a beautiful redbrick Victorian pile in central London. It was nighttime. My mum slept in my hospital ward, slumped in a chair, as I kept falling in and out of sleep, in a state of drugged wooziness, shooting pain, and persistent nightmares.

I remember being told that I should sign a release form for surgery. Brain surgery? I was in the middle of my very busy life—I had no time for brain surgery. But, finally, I settled down and signed. And then I was unconscious. For the next three hours, surgeons went about repairing my brain. This would not be my last surgery, and it would not be the worst. I was twenty-four years old.

7. Emilia Clarke is also popular for her exceptional musical talent. Possessing an alto voice, she is adept at singing ballads, blues, cabaret, and jazz numbers.

8. Prior to her big break Hollywood, Emilia Clarke worked many jobs at once. She worked as a bartender, server, call centre agent, and licensed real agent.

9. Emilia is known for her quirky and perhaps most attractive defining feature – her eyebrows. According to her, she was teased about her eyebrows as a child and as a result never liked them. Today, she she flounts them proudly .

10. Emilia has revealed her favourite TV how isn’t Game of Thrones. It is actually Friends!