The secret methods of the Celebrity Whisperer
The woman who empowers some of the world’s biggest stars
SHE is known as the ‘ celebrity whisperer’, a woman whose astonishing skill in honing Hollywood talent made an A-lister out of a man who stood on street corners dressed as a chicken. Today, Brad Pitt is known the world over.
Ivana Chubbuck’s client list includes Eva Mendes, Charlize Theron, Gerard Butler, Halle Berry, Sharon Stone and many others. So powerful are her methods, she reduced Beyoncé Knowles to tears within five minutes. And within months, the singer was topping the charts with Single Ladies.
Part therapist, part acting coach, and very Hollywood, Chubbuck, 62, runs a hugely successful drama school in Los Angeles. She hosts workshops around the globe, as well as in the wood-panelled library of her $4.5 m home.
Beyoncé went to Chubbuck when she was about to play soul singer Etta James in the movie Cadillac Records and wanted to be taken seriously as an artist. Despite her success, Beyoncé was at what she termed ‘a pivotal point’ in her life.
‘I’m about empowering people,’ Chubbuck told the MoS in a rare interview going much further into her methods, and her clients’ responses, than she usually allows.
‘Beyoncé is a black girl from the South, that is her world. Like everyone else on the planet, she has issues. But once she faced those issues and realised she could use them in a positive way in her art, she flourished.’
Apparently it’s all about the ‘secret stuff’ that Chubbuck’s clients tell her. Certainly it is well known that Beyoncé’s relationship with her domineering father has been fractured for years.
‘I told her to open up, to really get in touch with her feelings and what was going on inside her,’ Chubbuck said. ‘She started to feel her secret stuff and we start having a dialogue about it and she became emotional. We were crying together. She tapped into that well of pain inside her.
‘She rang me up after we’d worked together on the movie and said, “Listen to my new record – it’s all the stuff you taught me.” And that’s when she came out with all the great female empowerment songs. The little pop star turned into a global icon.’
When we meet at Chubbuck’s home, Mendes is leaving after a three-hour ‘intensive session’ for her new movie with Ricky Gervais called Special Correspondents.
So what did that amount to? Mendes said: ‘Ivana’s technique could be boiled down to: take the pain in your life and find the most effective way to accomplish a goal with it.’ In other words, your guess is as good as mine.
Mendes continued: ‘It helps you understand humanity – what drives someone to do what they do, good or bad. It’s not painful… it’s cathartic.’
Chubbuck first met Pitt when he worked as a promoter for a fast-food restaurant dressed in a chicken suit, and tells a story of a young man so driven by a desire to succeed that he had no life aside from acting. Today, he is still a client and Chubbuck worked on his most recent movie, Fury.
‘Brad always had a work ethic that put others to shame,’ she said. ‘He studied and worked. I would pair him up with a partner and many of those partners would ask to be changed because Brad wanted to rehearse a scene three, four, five hours a day.
‘For the major talents, fame is never the driving force. Brad worked his butt off, he’s taken risks over the years and when he fails he gets back up and works harder. He makes bold choices and isn’t afraid to fail.’
So what is the secret? Chubbuck says her technique is based on delving into your ‘deepest, darkest past’ and then using those negative feelings to positively portray a character on screen. Some of this is outlined in a bestselling book The Power Of The Actor (Gotham Books) which has been translated into 18 languages. Stars such as Kate Bosworth, Camilla Belle, Elisabeth Shue and Mendes have given it glowing reviews.
Mendes said: ‘It is my bible – I don’t leave home without it.’
Do her celebrity friends such as Matthew Perry, James Franco and Jake Gyllenhaal ever expect star treatment?
‘Celebrity goes out the window. I’m about stripping them bare. The one thing I have learned over the years is that all of us have the same needs and wants as human beings.
‘We all want love, we all have issues… the key thing is taking the bad stuff and not being a victim.’
‘Like everyone else Beyoncé has issues’