The mother of dragons is ready to break bread for a good cause! Emilia Clarke shared via her Instagram account that she is giving 12 fans the chance to have a virtual dinner with her amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The Game of Thrones alum, 33, made the announcement on Monday, March 30, as she explained the she was raising money for the Same You COVID-19 relief fund, an initiative in the U.K. helps those impacted by the ongoing crisis.
As she aims to raise £250,000 ($309,358) for the cause, Clarke revealed people who donate could win a very special “thank you” from her in return.
“How would you feel about having dinner with me virtually?” she asked. “When you donate … 12 lucky people will join me virtually and we’re going to put together a store cupboard dinner together. We’ll cook it and then we’ll eat it together.”
The Me Before You star added that the virtual meal includes more than just an opportunity to dine with someone famous. “We’ll discuss lots of things. Isolation and fear and also funny videos and, you know, the fact that I can’t really cook,” she quipped. “So it’s going to be fun. It’s going to be interesting.”
Clarke also explained a bit more about the cause and noted that the funds collected will go towards helping brain injury survivors who are being asked to leave hospitals early in order to make room for coronavirus patients. “They need somewhere to go,” she said. “We are creating a virtual rehabilitation clinic so that brain injury survivors have somewhere to go, somewhere to feel safe and somewhere to not feel so alone and isolated.”
The U.K. native continued: “You get to do a good thing, you get to help people and you get to have dinner with me!”
In the video’s caption, Clarke specified that all funds raised will go directly to those in need. “This fund will also help in freeing up the hospital beds needed to deal with the pandemic, to care for those who also need a space to heal,” she wrote. “100% of your generosity will fund virtual rehab clinic support in the coming weeks … a very big task and a very big ask but you are all very big hearted souls so I know you’ll want to help me help them!”
Though Clarke didn’t touch on her own medical history in her social media update, it’s clear this cause is one that’s very close to her. In March 2019 the Last Christmas star revealed via an emotional essay in The New Yorker that she had previously suffered two brain aneurysms in 2011 and 2013 and required extensive surgery after the second scare.
“The second one, there was a bit of my brain that actually died,” she told CBS Sunday Morning in April 2019. “I was like, ‘What if something has short circuited in my brain and I can’t act anymore?’ Literally, it’s been my reason for living for a very long time.”
While the actress recalled feeling sad after her second operation, she found strength in portraying her onscreen GOT persona, Daenerys Targaryen. “You go on set, and you play a badass, and you walk through fire, and that became the thing that just saved me from considering my own mortality,” she shared at the time.
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