Cersei Lannister showers Daenerys Targaryen with love.
- Lena Headey, AKA Cersei Lannister on Game of Thrones, paid tribute to her co-star Emilia Clarke after she opened up about suffering from two brain aneurysms for the first time.
- Headey praised Clarke as a “warrior” and called her “kind and determined” in a touching Instagram post.
- Clarke revealed in a personal essay yesterday that she struggled with brain aneurysms in 2011 and 2013, between her earlier seasons on GoT.
Lena Headey (Cersei Lannister) and Emilia Clarke (Daenerys Targaryen) may play enemies on Game of Thrones, but in real life, they’re true pals. After Clarke penned an emotional essay revealing her struggles with brain aneurysms for the first time, Headey proudly supported her co-star with a tribute on Instagram.
She posted a stunning portrait of the actress and wrote in the caption:
“It took me a while to know this woman (there are 64000 of us after all) Not until she spoke to me about her experience did I fully realize the warrior she truly is (MOD for real x209840000) she does really great things for causes that deserve it. She’s kind and determined and funny and aware. #Thursday’s MVP … Here’s to @emilia_clarke 💪💪💪💪💪⭐️⭐️⭐️💗”
(For Game of Thrones newbies, MOD stands for Mother of Dragons, one of the many epithets for Clarke’s character Daenerys on the show.)
Clarke thanked her fellow actress for the love. She commented on Headey’s post, “Lena you bloody hero!!! Thank you!!! From one warrior to another I salute and love you! ❤️❤️❤️❤️”
Another GoT co-star, Nathalie Emmanuel (Missandei) responded with a string of endearing emojis.
Clarke also thanked her fans and followers for the widespread responses to her experience. “I had to put a video up to say thank you,” she says in a new clip posted today. “The response from my story has been overwhelming, and deeply and profoundly moving, so thank you so much.”
In her essay for The New Yorker published yesterday, Clarke revealed that she was hospitalized for a brain aneurysm in 2011, after filming the first season of Game of Thrones, and was treated with a minimally invasive surgery. However, as she recovered from the procedure, a second smaller aneurysm on the other side of her brain worsened. She underwent surgery for the second injury in 2013, but the operation failed and doctors had to go through her skull immediately to treat the brain damage.
Now, years after the second surgery, Clarke has “healed beyond my most unreasonable hopes” and is launching the charity Same You to support people struggling with and recovering from brain injuries of their own.
Game of Thrones fans will be able to see Clarke and Headey on screen again when the series returns for its final season on April 14.
