Ivana Chubbuck takes pride in making Oscar winners
Her Lifetime Achievement Award from the Russian Film Festival puts her at par with fellow winners Leonardo DiCaprio and Francis Ford Coppola.
A tearful Halle Berry, clutching her Best Actress Oscar for Monster’s Ball, thanked her because “I couldn’t have figured out who this lady (her character, Leticia Musgrove) was without you.”
When these moments come, Hollywood acting coach Ivanna Chubbuck would rather focus on her actor than herself.
Her sense of pride is similar what a parent feels “when your child does ballet.” She gets her high from giving actors wings to fly and outdo themselves.
Sylvester Stallone called Ivana while she was out on vacation to ask what his objective was for the role he was playing. Back when he had yet to catch people’s attention and win an Oscar, Brad Pitt learned the ropes of acting by signing up in Ivana’s class.
What drives these A-list actors to seek guidance from Ivana?
Her openness is one. She lets actors enter her world — with all its secrets and lessons. Ivana isn’t afraid to be herself.
“I share my secrets to them,” she said. “I reveal as much as they do.”
She tells them they have power to change first, themselves, and then the world they live in. So Ivana’s actors are not afraid to express themselves, to be human like everybody else.
After all, her workshops all over the world (e.g. Tokyo, London, Moscow, etc.) made her believe race, creed and religion don’t make us different from each other.
“People seem to have the same fears, the same issues, the same relationship problems.”
Therefore, she concludes no one must feel alone in this world. We must instead find joy in our shared humanity, in being part of one big family “connected through the arts.”
One’s pain is another’s. So there’s no use feeling like a victim. All you have to do is show that pain and draw strength from an audience that feels that pain.
“Not only you are affecting your audience, you’re also affecting yourself. It’s cathartic, and it feels good to help people change their circumstances,” she explained. Ivana’s actors feel empowered. “I can relate to you. We have the greatest commonality, and this allows people to feel hopeful.”
She measures success, not by the number and frequency of praises she gets from actors and directors, but from how much she helped someone reach his or her potential.
Of course, Ivana doesn’t do it alone. Much of the work still belongs to the actors, like the 16 Star Magic artists handpicked to attend her acting workshop at ABSCBN’s Dolphy Theater.
Star Magic Artist Training head, director Rahyan Carlos, described the workshop as “an intense experience where actors have to rehearse for up to eight hours.”
Ivana herself says it won’t be easy. But then, the stars Ivana worked with never took the easy road.
“They work so hard, they end up having star quality,” she said.
Ivana added that they also refused to play it safe. They take risks. Stars, she explained, don’t need to be born. They just have to work hard and take leaps of faith. They have to continue studying until they’re 70, like Stallone does.
This could very well be Ivana’s secret for staying on top of her game.
“I learn something from them (the actors). I’ll stop teaching when I stop learning.”
Her students are Ivana’s teachers. She gets from them as much as she gives, which is 100 percent, seven days a week.
It is, and will always be the reason why she gets an adrenaline rush — from sunup to sundown.