Unfortunately that whole section of the film relies upon Padme being just a handmaiden, not the Queen. Qui-Gon’s basically using the fact that Padme is unwilling to reveal herself to get his own way.
It would have to be some way that the audience knows right away, even if the characters aren’t explicitly told until later in the film. Usually a change like this is executed easiest in a crawl but that doesn’t seem possible here.
Hmm…well, she’s not Queen of Tatooine so there’s no reason Qui-Gon would have to obey her. Still, it probably works better the way it is in the film simply for the fact that a change like that should alter the way the characters interact with each other.
Yeah, I don’t know how you could communicate this idea early in the film to the audience. If it could be done visually with very little to no dialogue… If you could show the two of them in a shot or two where they’re switching costumes right before the battle droids come-…man, there’s like, nothing to work with, is there?