Adriano Goldman: We’re right after the second World War, so London was in bad shape. Really gray and rundown—including the royal palaces. Stephen felt that should be somehow felt. Instead of discussing references, I remember us discussing what I call anti-references, stuff that we didn’t want. I remember us saying, “This shouldn’t be glossy. It shouldn’t be Cinderella-like in any way.” Although we are talking about a specific family that from the public’s perspective, they live this fairy tale life, it was much rougher than we thought. We always wanted this believable, breathable kind of texture where costumes can be seen, that you can somehow feel the air, feel the dust, and be physically close to the actors.
That was very much Stephen in terms of how to be different from so many other royal dramas and series and movies that had been done before in the UK and all over the world. There was this kind of, I’m going to say, enhanced realism. We should be able to trust the characters, trust the locations, trust the costumes. Nothing should be absolutely new.
Stephen Daldry: Adriano is probably the world’s leading cinematographer when it comes to an emotional engagement with a closeup, and allowing it never to feel like it’s lit, but it’s actually always keeping it as following the character. Rather than feeling that he’s lighting a scene, he’s always lighting the characters, and it’s always incredibly specific.
This scene actually wasn’t written. This is one of our made-up scenes, Adriano. [Laughs] We thought we might take the king on a duck shoot, and he would cough and we would feel an impending mortality. We went to the location and we decided we’d try to do the hardest thing, which is put these characters on boats, in these incredibly difficult shooting conditions. We had to be on the boat next to them, and of course, this is very difficult—to get this early morning mist so perfectly, and follow these characters into what is a sequence, which is actually about the king’s death.
We had loads of ducks, and Adriano was behind the camera at one point, and he was saying, “I don’t see any ducks. I’m not seeing any.” So I went myself down in front of Adriano with a load of ducks, holding the ducks myself and throwing the ducks myself into the air. So it felt like the ducks were passing, but that was just Adriano—me throwing the ducks, and these boats going off into the mist.
Establishing the Palette