After working on 28 episodes over six seasons of The Crown, including both the pilot and finale, cinematographer Adriano Goldman couldn’t be happier with how much it’s changed his life. “It’s just a joy to be able to say I did the very first one and the very last one, so its full circle for me and [director] Stephen [Daldry] together.”
Netflix’s The Crown follows the life of Queen Elizabeth II, through her reign and the events that shaped Britain for the second half of the 20th century. The Queen was played by three actresses in different stages in her life – Claire Foy, Olivia Colman and Imelda Staunton – all of which Goldman had the opportunity to work with through different time periods.
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“I think if you go back now and watch, especially seasons 1 and 2, I think they are probably a little bit more romantic in a way, a little bit softer, a little bit warmer than seasons 3, 4, 5 and 6,” he says. Goldman says his work changed along with the other departments, and it helped to have the same production designer, Martin Childs, for all six seasons. “We always discussed that his work had to change a lot, his approach to different seasons had to change a lot… so I always knew that I was going to have to embrace a natural progression and evolution in terms of costumes and sets and colors, so for me it was easier in a way because I just had to somehow adapt to a new period without having to think so much, and without changing my style.”
The Crown received 18 Emmy nominations for the final season, with Goldman being nominated for the final episode, “Sleep, Dearie Sleep.” “That is very much The Crown style again,” he says. “It’s very classic, it’s very well composed, it’s very symmetrical and gentle in a way.” Director Stephen Daldry, who worked with Goldman on the pilot, returned for the finale and brought what Goldman calls a “theater man” energy that worked wonders for the shots.
“He really wants to explore the space and movement and always gets bored with face-to-face conversations,” he says. “That’s very evident on the scene between Imelda and Claire, that Claire is always behind Imelda’s shoulder, because in a way Imelda is not actually talking to a ghost, she’s talking to herself. It’s like this inner voice, whispering conflict and ideas. It’s so Daldry, that kind of style where actors are always moving and going around themselves.”
The final scene of the finale was actually the last scene of the series to be filmed, which Goldman says was “just really the best way to finish my journey on The Crown. In a way the gods conspired and we had the three Queens in Yorkshire Cathedral for our last shooting day and effectively the big wide shot that you see Imelda crossing the big knave, that was literally the last shot we did. And then the big applauses afterwards, and then Stephen was very, very emotional and we had the other two Queens watching that very last setup, so it was just the very perfect ending.”
Click the video above to watch the full interview.