From KCRW, Santa Monica and KCRW.com, this is The Treatment.

Welcome to the Treatment, which you can also hear at KCRW.com.

My guest director, Stephen Soderberg, has made 25 films since 1989 when he's started

with Sex Lives and Videotape.

He's probably made four since I've made this introduction.

His newest is Magic Mike.

It's always good to have you back on the show, Steve.

Thanks so much for doing this.

Yeah, it's always fun.

I was thinking about this when I spoke to you the other night after seeing it,

and there's a strain of your movies that I like a lot that people tend not to talk about,

which is you like talkers in movies often.

And I'm thinking about Demi and Bachir as Vidal and Shea.

I'm thinking about Brad Pitt in the Oceans movies. He didn't talk a lot

before then. I'm thinking also about Channing Tatum here, who basically played a lot of stoic, strong,

silent types, and you've got him talking, and it's released another side of him as an actor.

What is it you like about getting people who are not associated with talking to talk?

Well, I especially like in a movie when people who aren't necessarily very articulate are talking a lot.

In this case, you've got a character who is stripping to make money, but ostensibly considers himself an entrepreneur

and he has several other businesses that he's involved with.

So a lot of his conversation revolves around not acknowledging

that stripping is kind of his primary source of income

...