One thing to understand is that for the first several months of pre-production, George Lucas is still writing the script (pre-production started roughly around late April of 2002, with the first draft of the script finished in late January 2003. To quote Paul Duncan: 'before the script was written, the design team were given the freedom to imagine possible scenarios', and Rick McCallum: 'usually no one would go off and spend millions of dollars without understanding what the very foundation of the film they're making is, but we break that very rule of film production'.
Sources for this post are The Art of Revenge of the Sith by J. W. Rinzler (2005), The Making of Revenge of the Sith by J. W. Rinzler (2005) and The Star Wars Archives, 1999-2005 by Paul Duncan (2020).
It's also going to be a long ass post, so see under the cut.
June 7-21 2002(?): Ryan Church painted a battle scene: 'What if a bunch of bad guys were attacking Padme and the clones who were trying to get back to their ship?'
August 2002: While revieving costume designs, GLucas indicated that Padme will need senatorial, casual and action wear.
October 12th, 2002: 'For the first time, it is rumoured that Padmé might die in this film. She might be seen last on Alderaan.'
October 25th-31st, 2002: In response to GLucas requesting a new locale for a Padme and Anakin 'love scene', Erik Tiemens designed several Naboo sceneries. Upon viewing them, GLucas moved the scene to Coruscant; some design elements are used for Kashyyyk.
October, 2002: Iain McCaig designed costumes for Padme. Note the bird of prey.
October 2002: While designing the world of Kashyyyk, Erik Tiemens painted a scene of Padme walking with wookies. (Note: Image is a cropped version of the full art work)
November 1st-8th, 2002: Iain McCaig: 'George said there might be a scene where Padme's doubled over in agony and Yoda is there unable to help her'.
November 22nd, 2022: Erik Tiemens designed a set of new locations for Padme and Anakin 'love scene' on Coruscant.
December 19th, 2002: Erik Tiemens: 'I was brainstorming with Iain [McCaig] and he thought that Padme might have a dagger in her hand'.
December 20th, 2002: Derek Thompson illustrated his idea of having Vader find Padme and the children, who are being protected by Jedi.
January 31st 2003: GLucas delivered the first rough draft to his producer Rick McCallum. The outline given in the book is brief, but Padme's basic storyline in the 55 page script appears no different. However, Anakin's nightmare about Padme features her consumed by flames, and Padme goes to Mustafar with her handmaidens and Captain Typho - who are gunned down by clones on arrival.
February 6th, 2003: Erik Tiemens designed a piece of concept art for Padme's funeral procession.
April 12th/13th 2003: GLucas presented the first official draft of the movie script. It's 111 pages long. Padmé and her entourage are still attacked on their arrival on Mustafar, but this time by droids whom Anakin defeats. In regards to Padme's death, Palpatine tells Vader that a Jedi murdered her.
May 5th, 2003: Iain McCaig's designed Padme's funeral outfit.
May 24th, 2003: Erik Tiemens illustrated Padme and Anakin's farewell before he leaves for Mustafar.
May 29th, 2003: Erik Tiemens illustrated Padme watching the Jedi temple burn.
June 13th 2003: GLucas presented the second official draft of the movie script. It's 135 pages long. Anakin's nightmare of Padmé is changed from her being consumed by flames, to her dying in childbirth. There is now a scene where Palpatine suggests to Anakin that Obi-Wan is meeting with Padmé secretly. In regards to Padme's actual death, Palpatine tells Vader that he [Vader] murdered her, just as in the movie. Just like the finished movie, it is noted that Padme dies of a broken heart. Padme's final smile at Leia is noted to be the smile that Leia remembers in RotJ.
June 26th, 2003: The fourth draft of the script is completed, consisting of 129 pages. Padme is no longer accompanied to Mustafar by Typho and her handmaidens.
June 30th, 2003: Principal photography begins.
July 2nd, 2003: First Padme scenes are shot, both located in her apartment (Her and Obi-Wan discussing Anakin, and Padme with the other senators).
July 3rd, 2003: Revised script for the scene in which Obi-Wan tells Padme he knows about her and Anakin.
August 12th, 2003: Last day of principal shooting for Natalie Portman.
September 17th, 2003: Principal shooting finishes.
December 21st, 2003: Iain McCaig designed a practical costume for Padme.
March 9th, 2004: All but the last ('thunderous applause') of Padme's political scenes have now been cut from the final film.
August 23rd - September 3rd 2004: Reshoots
August 23rd, 2004: Additional scene scripted for reshoot the following day.
January 31st, 2005: One last day of filming for Natalie Portman and Hayden Christensen.
✦ Anakin memorized Padmé’s schedule by accident, just from how often he fixated on her transmissions and holomessages. He can always tell when she’s overworking herself even from systems away.
“You haven’t eaten today, have you?”
“…How do you always know?”
✦ Padmé pretends not to notice when Anakin “just happens” to visit Coruscant on her worst days. Sometimes he doesn’t even tell her he’s coming, he just waits outside on her apartment landing ramp until she comes home. (He often sneaks off when everyone is asleep on a mission offworld just to see her. He usually has to stealthily return back early morning. Thank the stars for hyperspace.)
✦ They’ve learned to read each other silently in public. One twitch of Padmé’s lips can tell Anakin she’s nervous, or annoyed, or hiding something. Which is extremely impressive, considering how well Padmé puts up her stoic Senator Amidala persona. It makes Senate galas infinitely more interesting for him. They’re able to have entire conversations with just their eyes and facial expressions.
✦ Anakin tried to cook for her once. The apartment filled with smoke. Padmé banned him from the kitchen for two months, until she got sick and he made her broth by hand, and now she lets him in again (only if she’s supervising).
✦ Padmé absentmindedly plays with Anakin’s mechanical hand when they lie in bed together. She traces the metal lines like they’re veins, like it’s his, not something that was taken and replaced.
✦ Anakin is embarrassingly good at braiding hair. He practiced on himself during his Padawan years out of boredom. One night after a long bath, he braided Padmé’s hair all the way down her back and she nearly melted.
✦ He adores brushing her hair. She’ll sit on the bed in front of him in silence, and he’ll slowly untangle every knot, gentle as ever, talking softly about his day like it’s a nightly ritual.
✦ Padmé keeps a hidden drawer in her closet with all the small trinkets Anakin has ever given her: parts of droids he fixed, scrap wiring shaped into a heart, a piece of blue glass from Christophis. She’s never thrown one away.
✦ When she’s upset, Anakin builds tiny things with scrap metal such as little animals, her favorite Naboo flowers, stars. He leaves them around the apartment for her to find. She keeps them all on the windowsill.
✦ Anakin has recurring dreams of their wedding, soft dreams. He relives that moment on Naboo when she said yes, when the lake whispered behind them, when he has felt the most at peace.
✦ Padmé taught Anakin how to slow dance. He stepped on her feet twice. By the third try, he got it fairly quickly. They still slow dance in their apartment sometimes when the lights are low and the war starts to feel far away for a moment.
✦ When Padmé can’t sleep, Anakin reads old political manifestos aloud just to annoy her in a dry monotone voice. She pretends to hate it, but it always makes her laugh, and she falls asleep curled against his chest.
✦ He calls her “Senator” in a mock-formal tone when they disagree and she calls him “General Skywalker” in the exact same voice. They’ve accidentally done this in front of others and had to seriously backtrack.
✦ Padmé uses “Ani” very strategically sometimes. Especially when she wants something, she’ll look up at him with those big brown doe eyes when she does it. He likes to pretend to be annoyed about it, but he melts every time.
“Ani… you’re not going to make me walk all the way to the market, are you?”
“Stars help me, you’re impossible.” (He loves her so much, he’d bring down the moons of Iego for her).
✦ She sometimes writes her name as Padmé Skywalker when doodling in her datapad while waiting for senate meetings to begin. Just to see it. Just to imagine.
✦ Padmé wears his Jedi robe he left behind once around the apartment when he’s gone. It’s much too big and brushes the floor, but it smells like him, and she hugs it tightly when she reads. She clings to it in bed when sleep is hard if she’s worried about his safety.
✦ Padmé writes physical letters to him when he’s away. Not to send, just to feel like she’s speaking to him. He does the same, storing holos in his private commlink that he never dares transmit.
✦ Padmé can tell exactly what kind of day Anakin’s had by how tightly he hugs her when he walks through the door. When Anakin is having a bad day, Padmé will sneak up behind him and wrap her arms around his middle, press her face between his shoulder blades, and just breathe with him until he softens.
✦ They once had a competition to see who could memorize the most constellations. Padmé won. Anakin insists the whole thing was rigged.
✦ Padmé worries about his Jedi training warping his emotions. She tells him she wants him to feel. Anakin secretly tells himself he’s allowed to feel anything, because she gave him permission. He will be getting his millionth lecture on controlling his emotions and internally he’s like “Well Padmé said it was ok so…”
✦ He kisses her palms. She runs her fingers through his curls. Neither of them talks about how often they do it, it’s just something they need.
✦ Sometimes they fight about idealism. She believes in systems, diplomacy, people. He believes in instinct, gut, her. But even when they’re angry, they never sleep apart. It’s a rule they didn’t say aloud but follow anyway.
✦ Their marriage vows were spoken softly, in secret, and they’ve repeated them again in whispers over the years — in battlefields, under starlight, and once during a blackout in their Coruscant apartment when neither could sleep.
✦ Anakin often says he’s not afraid of death but he is, because it would mean leaving her behind.
I had a dream in which there was technology in the world that allowed anyone to create a film according to their desire. And I wanted a film where they would be happy.
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