Enchanting Emilia Clarke

June 10 2024

Press: Emilia Clarke Feared She’d Get Fired From ‘Game of Thrones’ After Suffering Two Brain Aneurysms

Emilia Clarke Feared She’d Get Fired From ‘Game of Thrones’ After Suffering Two Brain Aneurysms: ‘If I’m Going to Die, I Better Die on Live TV’

VARIETY Emilia Clarke is opening up about returning to “Game of Thrones” after suffering two brain aneurysms during her time as Daenerys Targaryen on the HBO show.

In a new interview with the Big Issue, Clarke said that after her first injury — which occurred in 2011, in between filming the first and second season, and required surgery — she feared that she would be dropped from the series.

“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,” Clarke said. “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?’”

Another fear was that it would happen again — and this time on set. She told the Big Issue that she remembers thinking, “Well, if I’m going to die, I better die on live TV.”

Clarke did suffer another brain aneurysm in 2013, and underwent a second surgery. In an interview with the BBC’s “Sunday Morning” in 2022, she revealed that she lost “quite a bit” of her brain in the process.

“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,” Clarke said. “I am in the really, really, really small minority of people that can survive that.”

As a result, Clarke has founded the charity SameYou to help other victims of brain injuries with their recovery and mental health.

“Having a chronic condition that diminishes your confidence in this one thing you feel is your reason to live is so debilitating and so lonely,” Clarke said. “One of the biggest things I felt with a brain injury was profoundly alone. That is what we’re trying to overcome.”

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February 22 2024

Press/Gallery: Prince William Meets Queen Daenerys! See Emilia Clarke Honored by the Royal at Windsor Castle

PUBLIC APPEARANCES > 2024 > Feb 21: Investitures at Windsor Castle 2024
PUBLIC APPEARANCES > 2024 > Feb 21: Investitures at Windsor Castle – Inside

The ‘Game of Thrones’ alum called the honor the ‘cherry on the cake’ of the important work she and her mother have done for people with brain injuries

PEOPLE Prince William reunited with a TV queen when he presented Emilia Clarke with an honor at Windsor Castle.

On Wednesday, the Prince of Wales, 41, presented the Game of Thrones star and her mother, Jennifer Clarke, with Most Excellent Order of the British Empire medals in recognition of their services to people with brain injuries as founders of the charity SameYou.

“From Westeros to Windsor, a real pleasure presenting @emilia_clarke and her mum Jennifer with their honours today for their charity work with @sameyouorg supporting brain injury recovery care 🎖️ Congratulations to all of today’s recipients!” Prince William’s team captioned a montage of the ceremony on Instagram.

The mother and daughter smiled as the Prince of Wales pinned on the insignias and spoke about what the recognition meant.

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February 14 2024

Press: Emilia Clarke & ‘White Lotus’ Breakout Leo Woodall Sign For Hamilton Hodell In UK

DEADLINE – Game of Thrones star Emilia Clarke and White Lotus breakout Leo Woodall have signed for UK agency Hamilton Hodell.

The pair have signed in all areas for the UK market and retain multiple reps in the U.S.

Clarke and Woodall are two of the UK’s hottest stars right now. Best known for playing Daenerys Targaryen in Game of Thrones, Clarke’s other roles include in movies The Pod Generation, Last Christmas and Solo: A Star Wars Story. She is currently gearing up to play Oscar Wilde’s wife in An Ideal Wife from Sophie Hyde. Late last year, she was given an MBE alongside mother Jenny after the pair set up a charity together supporting people with brain injuries.

Woodall broke out as ‘cheeky chappy’ Jack in the second season of HBO’s White Lotus. He is playing the lead in Netflix’s soon-to-launch limited series adaptation of David Nicholls’ One Day and recently boarded James Vanderbilt’s Nuremberg.

“Hamilton Hodell is thrilled to welcome Emilia Clarke and Leo Woodall to the HH family,” said the partners at Hamilton. “Both are exceptional talents that align with our company’s vision to represent the greatest storytellers and creators of their generation. We are excited to embark on this next chapter of their career with them.”

The pair are repped in the U.S. by The Gersh Agency, Anonymous Content, RCPMK and GGSSC for Woodall, and CAA, Range Media Partners, Narrative and HJTH for Clarke.

London agency Hamilton Hodell reps the likes of Tom Hiddleston, Tilda Swinton and Luther Ford, who played Prince Harry in The Crown.

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November 05 2023

Interview/Gallery: Harper’s Bazaar Women of the Year 2023 (Actress)

PHOTOSHOOTS & OUTTAKES > 2023 > 2023 Harper’s Bazaar UK
MAGAZINES > 2023 > 2023 Harper’s Bazaar

Harper’s Bazaar Emilia Clarke is barefoot, running down a back street alongside London’s Savoy Hotel. Hitching her feathered Valentino dress up above her knees for extra speed, she flashes past, her hair flowing behind her. The photographer Betina du Toit snaps quickly, before they both retreat into the building, relieved not to have been caught by any security guards. “For the sake of fashion…!” Clarke exclaims.

The actress is clearly up for a challenge. And, over the past 12 years, there have been plenty of challenges, starting with growing up professionally on Game of Thrones, a series that was attracting an average of 44 million viewers when it concluded in 2019. The audience became so emotionally involved in her character Daenerys Targaryen’s trajectory from mild-mannered princess to the Mother of Dragons that, even now, some find it difficult to associate Clarke with anything else. Yet she has since taken on a variety of roles, including action heroines (she played Sarah Connor in Terminator Genisys, opposite Arnold Schwarzenegger, and the resistance fighter G’iah in the latest Marvel spin-off series, The Secret Invasion) alongside leading parts, notably in
Emma Thompson’s Last Christmas and the adaptation of Jojo Moyes’ novel Me Before You.

Clarke is unable to talk about any of these past projects, due to her support for the SAG-AFTRA strikes, and is thrilled that she’s forbidden from revisiting old Thrones ground (“because I have literally nothing new to say!”), as it frees her to discuss her forthcoming independent films and enterprises, as well as her side hustle creating comics. In 2020, she conceived and co-wrote, with the artist Leila Leiz, a satirical comic book titled MOM: Mother of Madness (which she characterises as “Deadpool meets Fleabag”) whose heroine is Maya, a single mother of an autistic son, who has special powers she can access when she has a period. “I wanted to use the menstrual cycle as an allegory for everything we don’t like about ourselves,” she says. “Periods make us feel insecure – I can still get embarrassed buying tampons in Sainsbury’s. I thought it was an interesting spin – that the thing we don’t like is actually what gives us our power.”

We meet again after the shoot on a quiet Friday afternoon in the top-floor Soho office of Clarke’s production company Magical Thinking Pictures, which she set up in 2016 in order to be able to green-light her own passion projects. It is a cosy, intimate space, scented with candles and fresh flowers, lined with books and adorned with framed posters of Maya. Comfortable in a navy cardigan and cream-coloured jeans, Clarke curls up on a sofa, inviting me to sit beside her. Physically tiny, about 5”1, she has an outsize presence. She gesticulates widely as she talks, her strong eyebrows in constant motion; at points in the conversation she breaks into different voices and occasionally argues with herself, her sentences running into each other as if she can’t keep her fizzing ideas contained within.
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September 06 2023

Interview: “Acting has shown me a light out of the darkest of spaces”

In Deauville, where she received the Nouvel Hollywood prize, the sunny Game of Thrones actress looks back on her cinematic crushes, her relationship with fashion, and her love for France.

PHOTOSHOOTS & OUTTAKES > 2023 > 2023 Vogue – (French)

Vogue France Emilia Clarke , the unforgettable Daenerys Targaryen in the HBO Game of Thrones phenomenon , was at the Deauville American Film Festival to receive the Nouvel Hollywood prize, which awards a star of American cinema. The same day, September 3, The Pod Generation premiered at the festival, a Sophie Barthes directed film, in which the actress stars, telling the story of a couple who call on artificial intelligence in the hopes of having a baby. It was the perfect occasion for the sunny actress, decked out in Chanel throughout the festival, to discuss this award, as well as look back on her love for French cinema and her vision of the New Hollywood.

A head-to-head in Deauville with Emilia Clarke:

You received the New Hollywood prize here in Deauville. What does this award mean to you? And for your career?
It means the world to me! It has long been my dream to be able to work alongside filmmakers that I admire and minds I want to learn from, so for such a prestigious festival as Deauville to recognize me for my work makes my imposter syndrome take a momentary back seat!

What is your personal vision of the New Hollywood? Of this new generation of actors and filmmakers?
My vision of the New Hollywood is one of action, change, representation, equality in both country and leadership roles and of true fierce unapologetic creativity. I want to be in lock step with my peers making work that challenges, and changes the status quo, that asks questions of our society and of the ways in which we can encourage people to see the humanity within us, and the environment around us as things of importance. The new generation of Hollywood continues to inspire and push me, both creatively and professionally, the future’s bright!

Of your generation, which actress do you admire?
Too many to count! But I currently have one helluva girl crush on Jessie Buckley . She portrays such a range of emotions with such a deft grace that makes her transform in a way that pushes me to want to be better myself!

Which young director would you like to work with?
Again, I could write a book here, but someone whose work I’m in awe of would be Charlotte Wells .

What differences do you see between American and European cinema?
I do see a difference, and I think that speaks to the fact that in European cinema there is more encouragement to take risks, and how it puts less onus on a financial reward and more on the creative act itself that is rooted in a freedom of expression. That kind of fluidity allows for films that don’t bow to a rule book and can result in pieces of work that show a real identity. All this being said, films need to make money for the industry to survive but I would love to work more within a European sphere to fully explore the breadth of my ability. I’ve spent a long time in the heat of the studio system in America and am ready to be on projects that are smaller and more intimate (not to say that I don’t still love being a superhero…)

Which French filmmakers do you admire?
I am blown away by Celine Sciamma . Portrait of a Lady on Fire ’s visuals have not left my imagination since I saw it. I’m also incredibly excited to see Bertrand Bonelli ‘s The Beast .
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