Soderbergh the World's Only Man Who Prefers His Porn Actresses Flat

When Steven Soderbergh cast real-life porn star Sasha Grey in The Girlfriend Experience, industry wags expected a little more onscreen sex than they ended up getting. So what drew the director to Grey if it wasn't her willingness to get nude? As he explains to the Guardian, he was intrigued by the lack of actor-ly affect that can only be won through a career where "preparing for your close-up" means a whole different thing:

"What a lot of people might see as a problem, I felt was crucial to the core of the movie," Soderbergh says, "[her] sort of disconnected quality. A lot of people are like, 'She seems really kind of flat.' Yeah, exactly." He mentions a scene that exemplifies "the way that she looks completely relaxed, she looks completely in control, she looks content ... I don't know how you fake that. It's just like Zen, totally Zen."

Totally Zen. Hey, we think we saw that! Didn't that win "Best Group Scene" at the AVNs?

· Steven Soderbergh on The Girlfriend Experience: 'I hired real people and turned them loose' [Guardian]