Emilia Clarke has revealed she sustained an unexpected and painful injury while filming her latest project, the racy Cold War-era spy thriller Ponies. The actress, best known for her role as Daenerys Targaryen in Game of Thrones, broke a rib during the filming of a series of intimate scenes.
The On-Set Incident
In a new interview, the 39-year-old star described the embarrassing mishap that occurred during a demanding day of filming. Clarke was shooting a sequence involving simulated sex with three different male actors when the injury happened. "Just keep bringing it - I'm going to sit on this thing, you're going to bring them in, we're going to pretend to have sex. I broke a rib that day," she told TheWrap.
Her co-star in the film, Haley Lu Richardson, 30, confirmed the story, adding sympathetically, "She really did. She's such a tiny little sensitive body, [it] meant she broke a rib." The awkward aftermath meant Clarke had to explain the unusual cause of her injury to her doctor.
Life After the Dragon
Clarke's appearance comes after she candidly discussed the profound impact the end of Game of Thrones had on her mental health. She admitted to suffering a "full mental breakdown" when the HBO series concluded after nearly a decade of her life. "It was the first time in my professional life that I stopped. I had a full mental breakdown. It was almost as if the timing of the pandemic was bang on," she revealed.
Reflecting on her career, which was catapulted by the fantasy epic when she was just 22, Clarke said it allowed her to finally take control. "It was only after the show ended that she took the time 'to realise that I could try and get some autonomy over my choices, my work,'" she explained to The New York Times. She has also firmly closed the door on the genre that made her famous, stating, "You're highly unlikely to see me get on a dragon, or even in the same frame as a dragon, ever again."
Overcoming Health Struggles
The actress has previously spoken about her serious health battles, which coincided with her time on Game of Thrones. Clarke suffered two life-threatening brain haemorrhages, in 2011 and 2013, which required surgery. She described how the experience "alters your sense of self on such a dramatic level" and confessed her initial fear was being fired from the show, worrying producers would think her incapable.
Thankfully, she has since recovered with "no repercussions" and is part of a "really small minority" of survivors to do so.
Ponies is set in the 1970s during the Cold War. Clarke plays Bea, a CIA operative who teams up with another agent, Twila (Richardson), to investigate the deaths of their husbands.
