Best Single Performance of the PT

My favorites are Hayden and Ewan. I like Ian as well, but his character was more straightforward than Anakin or Obi-Wan. There's a hell of a lot of nuance that goes unnoticed with those two. Their characters both grow an incredible amount through the films. There's a huge range of emotion, from hurt vulnerability to bad ass, to the death, lightsaber fighting. I know some don't like Hayden, but I think his performance is very underrated.

 

I know what you mean.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: Natalie Portman, only 16 at the time, holds her own against Ian McDiarmid, a man very much her senior and a vastly experienced thespian, in their scenes together. Portman "seasons" her character with a hint of indignation in her key scenes with McDiarmid and it comes off wonderfully. She has to effectively convey not just the idea, but embody the concept itself, that Padme isn't as naive or easily dominated as Palpatine thinks, and she succeeds.