Emilia Clarke, 39, hits out at ageism in Hollywood and says she's 'kept up at night' by the lack of roles for women as they age after spending a decade 'in shock' while filming Game Of Thrones

Emilia Clarke has hit out at ageism in Hollywood and said she's 'kept up at night' by the lack of roles available on big projects for women as they get older.

The Game Of Thrones actress, 39, got candid with Marie Claire UK about how the industry treats men and women so differently.

As she posed in a gorgeous pink gown for the accompanying shoot, Emilia also opened up about turning 40 and the lasting impact of her two life-threatening brain hemorrhages.

On ageing and Hollywood's treatment of women, she mused: 'The difference, I think, is that still we in a society are going to criticise women faster than we will criticise men.

'Yeah that keeps me up at night.'

She added of the unrealistic beauty standards many also come up against in the industry: 'You want us to look the same? You want to just be a population of the same face and the same body? Come on, we're human! We're gonna change.'

Emilia has faced various struggles since rising to fame on Game Of Thrones and in 2011 suffered a brain hemorrhage shortly after filming the first season of the show. She had another in 2013 and soon after lost her dad.

The star has now reflected on that time, telling the publication: 'When I was filming Game Of Thrones, I had zero curiosity about myself, about the experience, about anything. I was just in shock. I froze – for 10 years.'

'Season one wrapped at Christmas; by February, I was in hospital with my first brain hemorrhage. So my first press tour was me on morphine.'

It comes after earlier this year Emilia opened up about the 'lack of care' that she has received while filming nude scenes throughout her career, which she said 'could have been prevented.' 

She praised the bosses of Game Of Thrones, which saw her strip off in numerous scenes, but told Variety in their Power Of Women issue, how she'd felt less safe on other sets.  

She told the publication: 'I've experienced lack of care on other jobs which I think could have been prevented with some consideration'

'I don't want to specifically say [which roles]. There's just been a number of occasions where I've been like: 'This ain't right' And again, it's not through someone abusing power; it's through lack of thinking and care.'

Elsewhere in the interview, Emilia expressed how she had been left with 'survivor's guilt' after suffering her two life-threatening brain aneurysms, during her time filming the HBO fantasy series in which she played Daenerys Targaryen.

'For a number of years, I felt that I had cheated death, and it was coming to get me,' Emilia said. 'I truly felt like I had done something wrong, and I shouldn't be here.'

She quipped: 'I also thought it ruined my ability to act, which some people might agree with!' 

Speaking about her iconic role, she said: 'I have gone through every circuitous route to get to the place that I am now, which is finally being able to be very grateful for everything that Game of Thrones did and has given me.' 

'I no longer feel trapped in it, or trapped in the result of being in it, I feel just really lucky that it happened to me,  even luckier that I've had time to understand what that was, and now I feel firmly on the other side.'

Following her undergoing brain surgery twice, Emilia also had to cope with the devastating loss of her father Peter from cancer.