Cinema is a very teamwork willing endeavor as ideas and suggestions can come from almost anyone in the creative team and it becomes a bit arduous to clearly identify who has thought up each fantastic detail that beautifies a single production piece. This cooperative aspect is especially noticeable in the case of Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith, where in the case of Anakin Skywalker’s turn to the dark side, he is marked with yellow Siamese eyes of the Sith.
The character Saiyan Anakin is one of the most popular details in Star Wars mythos as it shows how much Anakin transformed into the notorious Darth Vader. This mark however was not part of George Lucas’ vision for the movie. In fact, Lucas was against the idea of Anakin ever having Sith eyes. The thought belonged to the actor who played Anakin, Hayden Christensen. Christensen explained in an interview with Empire how the thoughts came up in the process of filming when Ani chokes and kills Mace Windu (Samuel L. Jackson) in front of the Emperor (Ian McDiarmid).
Christensen felt that this scene is crucial in Anakin’s turn to the dark side, and that the audience needed to visually see Anakin’s shift in the scene. After recounting most of his pitch to Lucas, Christensen felt that it was imperative to incorporate ‘Sith eyes’ since it was something designed as a characteristic for Maul and Sidious giving Anakin’s degradation a clear visual direction which Jesse liked the idea. What scared him was that Lucas, the filmmaker, rejected such an idea pitch stating that Dooku did not have it along with Lee. Christensen then tried again a few days later and this time around Lucas saw the potential in the concept. There had been an understanding that Anakin needed to be a more visual character wherein Eye color would be an important aspect and thus could represent him being a Sith.
This example demonstrates not only the struggles and the creative contributions of actors but actors and their creative input is always insightful in creating defining moments of the film which are not easily visible. It is also worth noting that the creators of what we see on the screen are represented in the plural because it is always teamwork and not the individual alone who is able to create something great.