Cynthia Erivo, Emilia Clarke, Suki Waterhouse, Emma Corrin and Hannah Waddingham took center stage at Variety‘s inaugural Power of Women London, presented by Lifetime, as the five women reflected on their careers, the importance of community and the causes they champion.
Held Wednesday at the Chancery Rosewood Hotel and hosted by “Saturday Night Live U.K.” cast member Ania Magliano, the event began with Waterhouse’s performance of her new single, “Back in Love.” Variety publisher and co-president Dea Lawrence gave opening remarks, touting London as “arguably the biggest entertainment hub outside the United States,” followed by Variety co-editors-in-chief Cynthia Littleton and Ramin Setoodeh.
Clarke, the evening’s first honoree, talked about her recovery after she suffered two brain hemorrhages at 22 and 24 when she was starring on “Game of Thrones”: “Fifteen years after my first bleed, I have the hindsight to see how difficult that time truly was. I never had the chance to reflect on what my two brain traumas had done to me.”
She continued, “What about my anxiety? Surely that is normal, working in our image-obsessed industry? Breaking a rib after filming a sex scene? Well, maybe that was his fault. But sometimes even blacking out after long night shoots, the pain all over my body, I didn’t even think I should find out why. I just put it down as stress in my non-stop work schedule.”
