We’re all shaped by the people around us, so choosing your company wisely is smart. It’s essential to be with folks who genuinely root for you—people ready to celebrate your wins and for whom you wish the best. For actors, though, there’s an even deeper advantage to surrounding yourself with creative minds. Let’s explore some of these powerful benefits through the lives of EGOT winner Liza Minnelli and Billy Crudup from The Morning Show.
Insights for Surrounding Yourself With Fellow Creatives:
- Surround yourself with talented and ambitious creatives to challenge and elevate your own skills.
- Use feedback and collaboration with peers to deepen your understanding of roles and improve your performances.
- Build genuine friendships within the creative community to gain support, encouragement, and shared growth.
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Creative Connections Help You Recognize Others’ Talents
On CBS Sunday Morning, Liza Minnelli shared how she grew up surrounded by spectacular talents from the Golden Age of Hollywood. Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly and Kay Thompson regularly visited her family’s house. These performers weren’t just business associates; they inspired and competed with one another, bringing out the best in their skill sets and ultimately growing closer. Minnelli reflects, “I had great people around me. The biggest thing I got was to recognize somebody else’s talent.”
Creative Company Clarifies Your Unique Strengths
Being in the presence of these inspired individuals also helped young Liza clarify what made her unique as a performer. As the daughter of Judy Garland and film director Vincente Minnelli, she was often reminded of her originality. “I grew up with all these wonderful people, and yet my parents always said to me, ‘No — you’re your own. There’s nobody like you.'”
Creative Connections Amplify Your Creativity
Billy Crudup, a Golden Globe nominee for his role as Cory Ellison in “The Morning Show,” describes how creative social ties impact his own work. He shared on Off Camera, “If you put yourself in situations where you’re with people who are more ambitious than you, that are more talented than you, that have their own creative engines, you can exceed your own expectations and creative expression. And when that happens, it’s a vivid kind of living — like the world is on fire.”
They Can Give You Creative Direction and Purpose
It’s hard to believe, but Minnelli genuinely claims she wasn’t a naturally strong singer, especially compared to her iconic mother. After her mother’s passing, Liza was profoundly influenced by French singer Charles Aznavour, who she says completely transformed her life by teaching her how to deliver a song.
“When I went to see Charles Aznavour, and he sang the song — but it wasn’t his voice that got me. What got me was why he was singing it. I just thought: ‘That’s what I want to do!’ He told that story through the song.'”
This influence shaped her Oscar-winning performance in Cabaret and continues to resonate today. Now Liza reflects, “When I’m singing to an audience, I’m not singing to an audience; I’m singing to you. What I want to say to the audience is, ‘Have you ever felt like this? Because it’s what I’m going through now.’ I just want people to know that I’ve been through what they’ve been through.”
They Can Lead to Opportunities
Crudup recalls that a year after college graduation, he auditioned for the 1995 Broadway production of Arcadia. The feedback he received didn’t make sense until he stepped out of the audition room. With this revelation, he tried to re-audition but was told he wasn’t right for the part.
Still, the young actor was excited he’d understood what they were looking for in the role, so for fun, he invited an actress friend to work on the scene together. “We started working on this scene together just as a way of improving our skill set. And two weeks went by, and I got the call that [Arcadia casting] hadn’t been able to find anybody for [the role of] Septimus, and would I come back in? I’d been working on this thing so I knew it back and front,” the New York native remembers. He returned, nailed the audition, and landed the part.
Arcadia was his Broadway debut, and Crudup felt like he was in precisely the right place and knew exactly what to do.
They Foster Genuine Friendships and a Sense of Community
Creative individuals often share similar struggles and may require encouragement from time to time to persevere in their pursuits. They can share their resources and experiences, practice together and support one another. It’s a lifestyle, sometimes a community, that mutually supports creativity and the process rather than the result.
We’re all works in progress. So cherish your creative friends and enjoy the ride. As Liza Minnelli says about her dear friend, Michael Feinstein, who is her accompanist on the piano: “I mean we met each other, and we’re joined at the hip!”
Final Takeaways
Choosing the right company can profoundly shape an actor’s creative journey. Drawing from the experiences of Liza Minnelli and Billy Crudup, the article highlights how surrounding yourself with talented, ambitious peers not only sharpens your skills but also clarifies your unique strengths. These creative connections foster growth, inspiration, and meaningful opportunities.
- Liza Minnelli grew up inspired by legendary performers, learning to recognize and appreciate others’ talents.
- Being around creative minds helped Minnelli understand her own originality and voice as a performer.
- Billy Crudup emphasizes that ambitious, talented peers push you beyond your limits and fuel creativity.
- Collaboration and feedback can reveal new insights and open doors, as Crudup experienced with his breakthrough role.
- Genuine friendships within a creative community provide support, encouragement, and shared growth throughout an actor’s career.
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