.

SS: I've tried as I've gone on in my career to never, if possible, tell an actor what to think. I've become much more convinced that it's much better to tell them something to do.

LK: Yeah, I agree. Or a situation that they're in.

SS: Yeah, but never to get into, sort of the psychology of it. Something physical to give them is always good.

LK: When you get a good performance, it's a real synergy between the director and the actor. And it's almost like a chemical reaction on some level. But I think that the more I make films, the more I just try to keep it simple and too the point and not over talk stuff and not over analyze it and just present it and create a framework where people can do their own work but where everything is clear, where the character is clear, and the choices to be made, emotional choices, are clear. And I actually spend a lot of my rehearsal time focusing on that now, and it's come to a point where I don't worry about the actual performance itself 'till the day of the shoot and that's when it's really exhilarating.

Lodge Kerrigan & Steven Soderbergh

from Criterion's Clean, Shaven audio commentary