The Acting Mastery Podcast

We’re honoured to sit down with internationally renowned acting coach, Ivana Chubbuck — creator of the 12-Step Chubbuck Technique and the coach behind some of the most powerful, award-winning performances in film and television.With decades of experience working with actors including Halle Berry, Charlize Theron, Brad Pitt, Beyoncé, Jake Gyllenhaal and many more, Ivana has helped shape the careers and performances of some of the world’s most recognised artists.In this episode, Ivana shares her insights on what separates good actors from great ones, the importance of understanding human behaviour, how to create truthful and powerful performances, and why the work is what ultimately changes everything.

We’re honoured to host one of Australia's most versatile, fearless, and acclaimed filmmakers, Kriv Stenders. 
From intimate, improvisational, cinéma vérité-style dramas like ‘Blacktown’ and ‘Boxing Day’, to one of Australia's biggest crowd-pleasers, ‘Red Dog’, that went on to become one of the highest-grossing Australian films of all time, to large-scale war epics like ‘Danger Close: The Battle of Long Tan’, and most recently, the courtroom thriller, ‘The Correspondent’, Kriv has moved across genres while always keeping actors and performance at the heart of his work.
On television, he's directed acclaimed series including ‘The Principal’, ‘Doctor Doctor’, ‘Bump’, ‘Mother and Son’, and ‘NCIS: Sydney’. Like me, he's a graduate of the Australian Film, Television, and Radio School, and he's been someone who has consistently pushed the boundaries of Australian cinema. 
In this episode, I'm excited to dive into his career, Kriv's process, and the many lessons he's learned along the way, particularly around perseverance, resilience, and staying true to yourself as an artist.

If there was one guest I've wanted to have on this show since the beginning, it's Gregory Berger. Founder of Berg Studios in L.A., Berg, as he's affectionately known, is not only a highly acclaimed acting coach to several Oscar, Emmy and Golden Globe winning actors, but he was also my acting coach when I lived in L.A. A graduate and a former faculty member of the Yale School of Drama, Berg studied under two legendary teachers, Paul Mann and Earl Gister. Being in Berg's class was a revelation. I'd never encountered a teacher quite like him or an approach like his. His work provoked in me a much deeper understanding of what was possible for an actor, especially in terms of specificity and nuance. His clients have appeared in some of the most celebrated film and television projects of the past decade. The ones we can mention include Riz Ahmed from ‘The Sound of Metal’ and ‘Rogue One’, Michaela Cole from ‘Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’ and ‘I May Destroy You’, Winston Duke from ‘Black Panther’ and ‘Us’, Yaha Abdul Mateen II from ‘Watchmen’ and ‘The Trial of the Chicago 7’, and Simone Ashley from ‘Bridgerton’ and ‘Sex Education’. In this episode, Berg takes us deep into his philosophy of acting, not just as performance but as a practice of truth, imagination and behavior. He talks about what it means to be private in public, why your body often knows more than your brain and why trying to get it right is the death of spontaneity. So whether you're just starting out or you're already working, this episode is packed with the kind of insight that will stay with you.

We're thrilled to bring you an incredibly insightful conversation with one of Australia's most exciting writer-directors, Yolanda Ramke.
Yolanda first captured international attention with her short zombie film, 'Cargo', which she co-wrote and co-directed with Ben Howling. That short film, originally made for Tropfest, went viral and was praised by the likes of Simon Pegg. It went on to become a feature-length Netflix original film, starring Martin Freeman.
‘Cargo’ was nominated for 5 AACTA awards, including Best Film and Best Adapted Screenplay. The film was recognised by the Australian Film Critics Association (AFCA) with 5 award nominations, three Film Critics Circle of Australia award nominations, and 2 Fangoria Chainsaw award nominations (including Best First Feature). Yolanda went on to win her first Australian Writers' Guild (AWGIE) award for ‘Cargo’ in the Feature Film - Adaptation category. 
Following the success of 'Cargo', Yolanda was tapped by the creator of ‘The Haunting of Hill House’, Mike Flanagan (‘Midnight Mass’, ‘The Fall Of The House Of Usher’), to direct pivotal episodes of his follow-up series for Netflix, ‘The Haunting of Bly Manor’. She also went on to create the ABC TV series, ‘Troppo’, inspired by the novel Crimson Lake, by New York Times best-selling author, Candice Fox.
In this episode, recorded during one of our Industry Talk Nights in Sydney, we discuss how Yolanda broke into the industry, what it was like pitching to Hollywood, working with actors like Martin Freeman, her own creative process, and why creating your own work might just be the most powerful move an artist can make.

We are honoured to share one of the most transformative conversations we’ve had in recent memory with one of the world's most in-demand acting coaches, Gerry Grennell. 

If you’ve watched the ‘I Am Heath Ledger’ documentary, you would be familiar with Gerry’s name, and learned about the extraordinary collaboration between Gerry and Heath on some of Heath's most iconic roles, including his Oscar-winning portrayal as the Joker in Christopher Nolan's ‘The Dark Knight’. 

Gerry Grennell has quietly become one of the most in-demand acting coaches in the world, and his client list reads like a who's who of Hollywood royalty: Heath Ledger, Meryl Streep, Marlon Brando, Johnny Depp, Tom Cruise, Natalie Portman, Matt Damon, Pedro Pascal, Bruce Willis, Oscar Isaac, Joel Edgerton, Sean Penn, Anne Hathaway, and many more. 

With a background in Alexander Technique and voice, Gerry trained at the prestigious Central School of Speech and Drama in London, and went on to co-found the Bow Street Academy in Dublin, Ireland. 

What was initially meant to be a 90-minute interview turned into a 2.5hr journey of philosophies and profound insights, particularly on the subject of ownership and authorship for actors. This interview is so full of ‘aha’ moments, and we hope it resonates with our listeners as much as it has for us.