The Moons of Iego: The Padmé Amidala & Anakin Skywalker Website

QUOTES : DVD COMMENTARIES

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tpm dvd + aotc dvd + aotc deleted scenes + rots dvd + rots deleted scenes

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The Phantom Menace DVD Commentary

Lucas: "What you've really got here are two characters who are both off on a very difficult journey, both feeling very alone, and comforting each other. Padmé gets comfort from comforting Anakin, but it also gives her a chance to reflect a little on the problem she's having in terms of making decisions, what she's going to do about this situation of her people suffering." [the japor pendant scene]

Lucas: "His only friend, really, is Padmé, so he's using her as his anchor." [Anakin's arrival at Coruscant]

Attack of the Clones DVD Commentary

Lucas: "This scene establishes that Ani and Padmé haven't seen each other in ten years, so there's no history that we don't know about." [the reunion]

Lucas: "This scene in the bedroom is the first real scene between Anakin and Padmé... I also wanted to establish that Padmé was still kind of the older of the two, and that she was a little more in charge than Anakin, that even though Anakin has grown up, she's still the boss." [the packing scene]

Lucas: "...gave me a chance to tell this love story, which is what I call 'love story lite.' I only had a few scenes available to me to kind of establish their feelings for one another, and go from the kind of formality at the first scene they had together in the apartment to the more familiar scenes that are coming up later. This is kind of a transitional scene, where Padmé first gets the idea that Anakin's intentions really are more serious than she thought, when he reveals that he's been dreaming about her a lot, and thinking about her a lot, over the last ten years, in a slightly romantic way; it causes them both a bit of embarrassment." [the freighter scene]

Lucas: "Now we come to a secluded little lake retreat, obviously designed for the ultimate in romantic environment, which is where we're going to have Anakin and Padmé fall in love; I wanted to have something ultra lush, ultra romantic." [the arrival at the retreat]

Lucas: "When he starts touching her back and touching her arm and she doesn't really respond and say 'take your hands off me,' it signals to him that possibly he can make a move. It was something I wanted to do without a lot of talking, but I wanted it to be one of those kind of magical moments." [the first kiss]

Lucas: "...so we have this little picnic where Anakin brings out the uncomfortable subject of previous boyfriends, which boys have a tendency to do. And then we get into this political discussion which allows us to get a little insight into Anakin and Palpatine's influence over Anakin and some of his thought processes. Anakin realizes here he's gone a little too far with her, and tries to turn it into a joke." [the picnic scene]

Lucas: "I wanted to do a goofy little scene where they get to roll around in the grass which allows them to get a little more physically close to each other without that romantic edge. It's got a slight undercurrent of romance, but it's more of an innocent, playful, friendship thing." [the roll in the grass]

Lucas: "You also see in her that she's attracted to him just by the way she looks at him." [the Naboo dinner scene]

Lucas: "This is one of the pivotal scenes in their relationship, where he reveals the pain and suffering that he's been going through this whole time, ever since the first time he laid eyes on her again, but obviously even before that as he's dreamed about her over the years. He lets himself go here; it's intended to be overly dramatic, sort of almost even overly operatic, and it's emotional intensity on his part. He's young, and he's kind of spilling his guts out to her, and she doesn't know quite how to deal with this and it's putting her kind of on the spot, but she ultimately will refuse here to go along with him, which again is a pivotal moment for the rest of the film." [the fireplace scene]

Lucas: "Their relationship, their emotional maturity, is much more impetuous and much more immature. She is obviously older and in a professional thing, as a queen, a senator, a leader, so that she's much more reality-based in all of this and can see, look forward and say what the consequences are of their actions. She's not just going to let her emotions run rampant. Even he realizes that if they did have a relationship it would lead to doom, there's no way it could work. When she reminds him of this, where this would lead and what the consequences would be, he does accept it." [fireplace scene again]

Lucas: "He has become attached to his mother, and he will become attached to Padmé... and these things are, for a Jedi, who needs to have a clear mind, and not be influenced by threats to their attachments, that's a dangerous situation. And it feeds into fear of losing things, which feeds into greed, wanting to keep things and wanting to keep his possessions and things that he should be letting go of." [Shmi's death scene]

Ben Burtt: "We had at one time, a scene where [Anakin] and Padmé fire a wire across an abyss and swing across together. It very much recalls the fun of the first Star Wars, and they were quite charming in this scene, because she had to hang on to him, and he had trouble getting the cable across; it kind of bounces off the first time and he has to reel it in and shoot it a second time and she's like 'Jedi, huh?'" [P/A's arrival on Geonosis. Note: he does say 'Obi-Wan and Padmé' in the commentary, but given the context, it's safe to say Burtt had a slip of the tongue.]

Lucas: "We again reiterate this particular relationship where they've come to an accommodation with each other in terns of her being in charge of things and him going along with it; he's sort of given up fighting. So they're much more able to work as a team and be together and help each other here. They're not romantically linked but they're in terms of a working relationship and a friendship, they're linked, as partners." [P/A's cockpit discussion]

Rick McCallum: "This was a pickup scene. The reason we did this is because we just had too much action where they were separated for too long, so George came up with this idea where the cart is overturned, they both get into it, and have their little bit of dialogue and we see them connected and still at the same time battling everything else that's going on." [the 'aggressive negotiations' battle scene]

Lucas: "In the wedding scene I was going to do it two ways - one where she took his metal hand and the other way where she took his other hand, and I ended up shooting it originally with him taking her other hand because I felt that was the kindest way. But then after seeing the movie I decided it would be better to have him also take her in his metal hand and have a little bit more of the Darth Vader influence, and so we shot that later."

Attack of the Clones - Deleted Scenes Commentary

Ben Burtt: "The original script had a number of scenes in which Padmé and Anakin have long talks in which they talk about their past, about their feelings, and in particular the backstory of Padmé Amidala is fleshed out." [Extended Arrival on Naboo]

Lucas: "The scene in the parents' house was very difficult to cut out... I thought it went a long way into establishing what Padmé's problems were; the fact that she was really avoiding getting married, that she really shouldn't still be in public service, she didn't have to be in public service, that Anakin actually cared about her, and that she was kind of in denial: she liked him but she wasn't going to talk about it." [Padmé's Parents' House]

Burtt: "There was an opportunity for Anakin to be displayed as the boyfriend or escort to the parents, and they [Padmé's family] could sense her romantic interest in him, perhaps." [Padmé's Parents' House]

Rick McCallum: "There's a lot of yearning in that sequence. You can see Anakin's not only very protective, but also that he's very enamored of her. They [her family] obviously see that instantly. We find out that she's never brought anybody, of her boyfriends home. She claims he's not a boyfriend, but we can also tell that for the first time that she is starting to melt." [Padmé's Parents' House]

McCallum: "The scene in Padmé's bedroom was an interesting scene because it was about the two of them just talking. And he for the first time was not only seeing her room, a very private thing, but also he was seeing a little bit of her history." [Padmé's Bedroom]

Revenge of the Sith

Lucas: "The scene on the balcony of Padmé's apartment was actually shot later, because after I cut the film together I realized that we really didn't have enough time with them together in a normal situation; everything after this becomes a little more threatening and tense, and I needed something to just show them in their normal life, and focused on their dreams, their hopes and dreams for their future, which really centered around the children - or the child at this point, since they don't know they're twins. You know, as a way of just settling into a normal life before it all starts to fall apart, which it does in the next scene." [hairbrushing/balcony scene]

Lucas: "There was a lot of discussion around whether I should actually show one of these dreams, but I felt it was important. We refer to one in the last movie, but since this one centers around Padmé, I wanted to bring the audience into the dreamland so that we got a little bit more next-step-up in what's going on with his premonitions." [nightmare scene]

Lucas: "This is a scene that describes the overall plot, the sort of overriding issue of her death, and the dilemma they're in because they're not supposed to be married, the sort of domestic crisis that is the underpinning of the whole movie, before the Emperor enters into it and turns him to the dark side, but the reason he turns to the dark side is laid out in that scene, where they discuss the dilemma of and fear that he has of losing her." [post-nightmare veranda scene]

Rob Coleman: "It gave us a great scene between Yoda and Anakin, and for me it explains a lot of what Anakin was going through, and it used Yoda and his wisdom to help Anakin - "
Lucas: "To underline the dilemma that Anakin has of his fear of loss of Padmé." [Yoda counsels Anakin]

Lucas: "It's fear of losing somebody he loves, which is the flip side of greed, greed in terms of the Emperor, it's the greed for power - absolute power over everything. With Anakin, it's really the power to save the one he loves, but it's basically going against the fates, what is natural. But once he thinks he's going to get that power, it begins to occur to him that he could have the power the Emperor of the universe, just even more powerful." [Yoda counsels Anakin]

Lucas: "This scene is set up to establish that the pressure that Anakin is under is beginning to divide Anakin and Padmé, that she has these values of democracy and how things should be, that Anakin is starting to be confused about. You can see Anakin's loyalty is to the Chancellor, not to the Senate, not necessarily to democracy and for her to challenge what Palpatine is doing upsets him quite a bit, because it's attacking his friend and his mentor; he's getting in a state of confusion because of the pressure that's being put on him from various quarters." ["Don't shut me out" scene]

Lucas: "Because Anakin has been having some difficulty with Obi-Wan, this is to begin to set up that his nightmare about Padmé also begins to involve Obi-Wan, and that there's some jealousy between him and Obi-Wan about Padmé, and he senses that Obi-Wan has been there to talk to her, and he's struggling with this confusion of the fact that he's in essence emotionally unbalanced at this point. He is confused by Palpatine, he's confused by the Council, he's confused because he doesn't want to lose Padmé, he thinks that's he's figured out a way to get new powers that could maybe save her life, but he knows in essence that's probably wrong, so there's a lot of mixed feelings in this whole scene here." ["I promise you" bedroom scene]

Lucas: "I needed something that - sort of remind people of the real issue here is trying to save Padmé, and that that's what his conflict is, and that's why he's emotionally going back and forth, and it's very easy to have the audience believe that Anakin is miffed because he doesn't get to go on the mission, that he's angry because he's not a Master, and this scene is really designed to remind you that his real problem is that he just doesn't want to lose her and he knows that if the Emperor is killed, then any chance he has of saving her is going to be gone, that the Emperor is his only hope to saving her, which obviously drives him back to the Emperor's office." [Anakin's fatal decision]

Lucas: "It was really in the editorial process that the idea of intercutting her with him at that moment where he's at his very worst with her worrying about him - that juxtaposition works quite well, because it reflects as much on the slaughter of the children as it does on her concern about him. Even though she doesn't know that the children are being slaughtered, but it gives you this very strong emotional connection, when those two sequences are pushed up against each other." [Anakin kills the younglings/Padmé worries]

Lucas: "I like this scene because he's lying to her, and he's rationalizing it at the same time by saying he's doing it all for her, and he's loyal to the Senate, and the Chancellor, and her, but in the end he's twisted every fact to his own rationale to make it seem like it's okay; that in the process of lying to her he's actually just lying to himself and rationalizing his behavior, because he knows he's wrong, but he won't admit it. For me this is the scene that says she could never fall in love with him - I mean, she's obviously in love with him, but she could never live with him because he's too far gone, that he could murder a bunch of kids and then go and rationalize it to where he's just doing his job." ["Wait for me" veranda scene]

Lucas: "In this scene with Padmé, when she won't tell him, he realizes that the first thing she's going to do is she's going to run to Anakin, and that rather than push her for the answer here, he would simply follow her." [Obi-Wan confronts Padmé]

Lucas: "That's really the moment where the, I think, the pathos of him getting stuck in that suit is real - because if he had to do it over, he probably wouldn't do it. But he can't stop it now. He can kind of see the rest of the movie, not in terms of him being defeated by Obi-Wan, but in terms of him going down a path that Padmé can't follow and the consequences that's going to have, and the fact that he's going to have to battle Obi-Wan. He knows that at that point this is all going to end up with a fight between him and Obi-Wan. He knows that Padmé may not buy into this new reality, that eventually she's sort of going to find out the truth: he made a pact with the devil and now he's become the devil. But it's not a joyful thing for him, it's a sad thing. The thing that she says at the very end is 'I know there's still good in him,' and that Luke says later on in Return of the Jedi, is 'there's still good in you,' that's sort of a recurring - because there is, that's the one thing that will bring balance back to the Force, is there's this little ounce of good in him, and it's his son that makes him realize that he made the wrong decision and that the time for rationalization is over and he needs to do the right thing, which is to get rid of the Sith and bring balance to the Force." [Vader's remorse/Padmé's departure]

Lucas: "The whole backstory that was done in '73 really just described the general things: that Anakin turned to the darkside, that she couldn't turn, and when she discovered he was really more interested in power than he was in saving her, that she wouldn't have anything to do with him after that. So that was about all there was to this scene, in terms of where they confront each other, it's really about her realizing that he's changed, and that he's interested in becoming the Emperor of the universe, and that this isn't the guy she fell in love with, he's turned into a monster - and him in his possessiveness, his need for greed, becomes extremely upset that she's not going to follow along, and then when he sees Obi-Wan, that sets him off. Earlier, and through various incarnations of the script, there was much more of a personal jealousy between him and Obi-Wan, but I pulled that out. Now it's just that she's betrayed him because she brought him there to kill him." ["You're breaking my heart" scene]

Lucas: "One of the problems of Sith is that they're quick to anger - this scene with her, it was very important that we sort of set it up to the point where he chokes her, as he does with one of the generals in Episode IV. But at the same time he doesn't kill her or anything, he just causes her to faint, but that you get to see that flash of anger that he now doesn't really have much control over." [The Force-choke]

Lucas: "And now he's assuming that she's in league with Obi-Wan - not necessarily in a love relationship or anything, but in the basis that they're both on one side of the path - of going down one path and he's going down the other." [The duel begins]

Lucas: "Again there's a lot in the movies which in all six episodes where different people say the same line under different circumstances, so it means different things, or it means the same things, or it's ironic. Here is one which is within this movie, where the only thing she says is 'Is Anakin all right?' and then when we get to Anakin the first thing he says is, 'Is Padmé all right?'" [Padmé asks after Anakin]

Lucas: "This sequence of her giving birth and Anakin becoming Darth Vader originally was separate, two separate scenes. And then as we started editing, they started intercutting them more and more, and taking some of the other material that were irrelevant out of it, so that it really just cut from her to him and him to her, and kept working on it until we ended up with this - this final thing where the transitions are primarily from him to her. And it's been broken up quite a bit, because originally it was just that she had the baby and then he became Darth Vader; one happened after the other." [Birth of twins/Vader]

Lucas: "This is where you can really - it's hard to do it on a piece of paper, but once you get the movie in your hands, you begin to see things and work with them and eventually they evolve into what feels right for the movie itself: just at the moment he's born, she dies, so that you have that moment where he takes his first breath as Darth Vader which is the symbol of him coming alive, and then that's followed by the scene of her saying 'there's still good in him' and dying." [Padmé's death]

Revenge of the Sith - Deleted Scenes

Lucas: "The other purpose of the scene is for Padmé to feel out the idea that she maybe could tell Anakin about this. She doesn't - she's not comfortable with the fact that she has to keep this secret from him." [Seeds of Rebellion (Padmé's Apartment)]

Lucas: "The last [deleted] scene is where Padmé presents the Petition of the 2000 to Palpatine and tries to get him to back off on his quest for power. We see that there's a little bit of antagonism between Padmé and Anakin about this issue, and that also Palpatine is working to subvert Anakin's trust in Padmé." [Confronting the Chancellor (Palpatine's Office)]

Lucas: "Looking at the film I realized that it was more important to really follow the thread of the children and not the thread of all the characters. So we first deal with the mother, then we deal with the father, and then we deal with the two kids. Putting Yoda in there was a bit of unnecessary exposition." [Exile to Dagobah (ending)]

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