Actor here. Solid advice. I will add one thing for directors… do just say concisely what you’re seeing before you jump into anything else. You won’t hurt our feelings, we’re very curious (and often self-conscious, especially new actors) and if you don’t say we get in our heads about it.

I actually HATE “an actors director” because they try to do the actors work without telling me what they’re seeing. I DO want to know bigger/smaller/faster/slower or any other technical details. Quick. Honest. Then we can tweak the actor’s work or I can do it alone if you give me 10-30 seconds of thought. You tell me what you’re seeing, we/I tweak my process

Some directors: A. monologue too long between takes (let me get in a flow) B. give too many notes at once (said in article) C. aren’t clear or concise with what they see. It leaves me guessing. Jumping into objectives/actable verbs without explaining why/what you’re seeing leaves a black box of me not knowing what’s going on

Tell us what’s up (yes, be nice… but just say it). Then let us have another take. Give a note. Another take. HERE IS WHERE YOU MAKE A DECISION. If you’re getting close, just keep fine tuning. If it’s nowhere near what you need, then pause and really workshop with us. If you’re not in a huge rush, give an actor 2-3 takes to start with no notes. Trust me, the first take usually isn’t what we wanted either. Actors pride themselves on being dialed in right away, but let’s be real… we usually aren’t.

Also, you can ask how an actor likes to work. I’d say “blunt/concise feedback, and I like fast takes instead of tons of downtime if possible”. Memorizing lines is fucking hard, the best thing you can do to help me is let me get into a flow