Joseph Sikora Talks Power Season 3Posted by Brad Balfour
July 20, 2016
The collaboration between executive producers 50 Cent and Courtney A. Kemp continues to build audiences and develop the mythic tale of Power — a truly New York story of success built on crime and the effort to find redemption — at least for lead character James “Ghost” St. Patrick (Omari Hardwick). With the third season, debuting this month, the stakes are higher than ever.
Though they’ve been like brothers since childhood, Tommy Egan (Joe Sikora) and Ghost go their separate ways at the end of Season Two, with Tommy stays a criminal, distributing for Mexican drug cartel leader Lobos, with one condition – Ghost has to killed. Hurt by Ghost’s abandonment, Tommy agrees to this task.
Reunited with a gorgeous redhead Holly (Lucy Walters) in this new season, Egan is learning to be careful for getting what wished for, making him more crazed and brutal than ever. This role reversal the Irish guy driven to be the drug lord while his buddy choses to leave it behind, makes this central to the lure of this series. Add in the sexy side of these various couples coupling and the show offers an uncanny look into a seamy side of a New York most don’t see or wish to.
Though Chicago born-and-bred actor Joseph Sikora has made his name being the ruthless Egan in Power — now entering its third season — he foreshadowed this current role in playing a conflicted villain in Tom Cruise starrer, Jack Reacher. But here’s he has a sustained chance to show what he can do in developing a character with his myriad of dark and light sides.
Born and raised on the Second City’s far northwest side, Sikora studied acting, received a B.A. in theater, and landed in LA to advance his career. As a kid, he was in a TV commercial with Michael Jordan — maybe that provided some inspiration that finds its way into Power. Nonetheless, through ample experience in theater, film and television, the 40 year-old found himself continuing a role he has come to relish for his darkness and complexity.
This roundtable was recently conducted at the Langham Hotel in Manhattan.
How do you get to be such a bad guy?
Joseph Sikora: You become such a bad guy by never thinking you’re a bad guy. That’s when you get into trouble and come off false and twist your mustache rather than be a human being. That’s a big fault people fall into and that’s why I turn off my television.
How much of it is you directing your character and how much has Tommy Egan taken on a life of his own?
JS: For Tommy, more than anyone [else] I have played — then again I’ve lived with him longer than any other character I’ve been — really has a life of his own. I’ve learned to trust him because he was a collaboration. The show’s brilliant creator-storyteller, Courtney Kemp, gave me these wonderful bones to work with, Our show’s star Omari Hardwick, and Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson, who is an accessible and influential executive producer comes from the streets we’re trying to portray. He’s been very influential in the storytelling and creating new characters so that by Season Three he’s very lived in.
However, the decisions I made before we called “Action” on Episode One, Day One, are still all applicable. That character hasn’t changed, that man who was created at that point is still the guy that we are seeing today, we are just enjoying different aspects and details of this person.
Do you think he’s up for the task of killing Ghost?
JS: Myself as an actor had to find the place, and did find the place, where Tommy would kill Ghost because Tommy would kill anybody. To get there, where that comes from, that’s the journey, that’s what we’re going to watch Tommy do. Also, Tommy is smarter than people often give him credit for.
But he’ll get from A to Z even if he has to shoot every letter or he’ll just jump there. Sometimes it’s a super direct route without being super finessed, but he’ll get there. That’s one of the things people enjoy about Tommy, not just his loyalty, but his stick-to-it-ness.
At the end of Season Two, there was the disconnect between you and Ghost because before you and Ghost were best friends. In Season Three, will there be a backstory that ties up some loose ends as to how your character can be so angry with Ghost that you don’t want him as a friend any more?
JS: The backstory is in the material. We have received that information; they grew up together and Ghost said, “My best friend of 25 + years.” Ghost lived with us in my mother’s house in the neighborhood after his father passed away. A lot of these things have been in there.
I would recommend to anyone that wants a backstory to re-watch Seasons One and Two. Also, by the end… I tend to believe characters when they’re in that moment of passion, and I think Tommy said a very truthful line, “You were my brother, but my brother is gone.” He truly believes that. To get back from that is a stretch.
Is there any conflict going on in his mind? Does he ever want to walk away?
JS: Tommy is ride or die by himself, he sticks to it, Tommy is the streets — they saved my life and I owe the streets everything rather than it being Ghost. These streets have nurtured me in a way that I can utilize this intelligence, information and savvy to a [various degrees] to legitimize this stuff and that’s the way of the world.
Tommy feels like that’s a separation, that’s a sell out, you’re giving up on what gave you your personality and who you are. “[Ghost] you are turning your back on yourself” — that’s how Tommy feels.
You could argue that Tommy is stuck in a rut as a person and is just going to take the streets to their natural conclusion.
JS: You could also argue that a 100 dollars is more than 10 dollars and that’s an evolution of money. He is evolving in terms of expansion. If you argue that expansion as evolution then you got a decent argument on your hands.
And when does it stop? It doesn’t ever stop. Evolution will never stop until everything is destroyed, Tommy in terms of the things he wants and considers power and control, have the option of growing until they explode and are no more.
You can understand the psychology of someone staying at it.
JS: Tommy says to himself all the time, “We’re going to die, why don’t I walk away?” But then Tommy says we’re all going to die, and that’s why he’s going to live.
In this season Tommy’s world starts to get turned upside down, how is he going to try to stay above Julio and be this Napoleon?
JS: He doesn’t even try to stand above Julio, he just towers over Julio so exponentially. He’s going to need to utilize his friends on the streets because there are more enemies than he even knows about and that’s going to be revealed in this season. It’s really exciting. People are not what they seem, people who we thought we knew all the way in season one have secrets that they are hiding that come out.
The relationship between Tommy and Tasha, who I really want to bring up, [actress] Naturi Naughton, who just did an amazing turn in Season Two. She’s always great, but boy, what a presence she has. The relationship between Tommy and Tasha this season is also strained, where is that going to happen? It’s an A level playing field but it’s rich soil, so there’s going to be new plants that grow out of it; they are going to be different plants than we saw [before].
Do you feel an ominousness when you play this character?
JS: I try to keep it as human as possible without thinking about adjectives. I just think about what I need to accomplish rather than thinking about how I’m going to be perceived. When I’m directing myself in something, at some point, I’m sure I’ll be more interested in the visual picture, but that’s not my job and I don’t like to micromanage. So I just do my job.
Then there’s Tommy’s relationship with Holly — seems like they are cut from the same cloth.
JS: They’re both fighters.
They butt heads. How do you approach that?
JS: It’s a very interesting human way that these two people met. When we look back at our old relationships and find we were with boyfriends or girlfriends that were similar to us because that was exciting. An intellectual is often times with another intellectual.
But she challenges me this way and we keep bumping heads and I think that as we grow older, those of us that have gotten into relationships later in life say, “You know what, maybe I need a yin to my yang to have a little more balance.”
And there’s not a lot of balance in that relationship, but it’s exciting to watch. We do it as Lucy Walters, who plays Holly, we have a great rapport and trust with each other as actors. She does her thing and I react to it and I do my thing and she reacts to it. What we have is this visceral fun, sexy and violent relationship where you never know what’s going to happen, but we also have this like-mindedness for them to win and it’s going to be a great Bonnie and Clyde story for this season.
There’s a lot of these themes, these classic Greek tragedy tropes that give the story a mythic quality. Do you think it lends the story a mythic quality?
JS: I think it does, there’s an epic quality but I can’t say that comment because Courtney didn’t like it. She created a world that has become very real. It is New York, but it’s our New York of Power. There are certain rules and regulations…
It’s stylized.
JS: In some capacity, but at the same time it really is New York. Other people often use the expression of “the fifth character” for the city where the thing is filmed, but I don’t think it [New York] is utilized in the same way [as we do]. I’ll give Law & Order some props, it’s a very New York animal in a similar way, but a more cinematic way. New York is utilized in Power to tell the story.
When I look at you, you can be pretty intimidating. You’re more complex than a villain but do you think of yourself as a dark character?
JS: That’s what we do as actors, and I take that as a compliment, Brad. Because people make that mistake about me all the time. It’s the old thing “oh you look this way” well I look this way because I want to look nice today. It’s means to an end, how I dress, how I present myself, and I got a lot of options.
Did I ever think about it? I never really thought about it or didn’t think about it. I just thought, “What are the most interesting choices I can make today?” and sometimes I fail and sometimes I succeed, but I always go for it.
Can Tommy and Ghost ever get back to where they were?
JS: No, never. It’s the old expression, a man can never step in the same river twice because it’s not the same river nor is he the same man.
What personal experiences have you pulled from to grow your character?
JS: Just living life. It’s hard to say in terms of the evolution of the character. In terms of creating the character I definitely created him based on some guys I met in my youth running around on the streets of Chicago, which can be pretty interesting place — with “men with death in their eyes,” who always seem to have corny jokes.
That was an aspect of Tommy I really wanted to make sure was there. Brad brought up earlier, people can fall into a two dimensionality and just try to be angrier or scarier, but that’s not how people act in my experience. This is something to accomplish, what do I need to accomplish?
There’s also a silky quality to Tommy. When he’s the bacon thief or playing the kids or playing video games, that is one of my favorite things to explore with Tommy, the full roundedness of him as a human.
How far along do you know where this is going to go? Are we going to see shows produced outside of the Power series from this team?
JS: I’ve heard that too. I know what you guys know. I don’t know much beforehand. I haven’t seen the show yet, I see it when you guys do, I’m not a producer on the project, I’m not privy to earlier cuts or copies, and oftentimes not even earlier scripts. Sometimes the four leads will get the script a day or two earlier than the rest of the cast, just to help us along because we got the largest job. But as non-producers we’re not privy to that information or influence.
How much prep time do you get between getting the script and shooting?
JS: Sometimes it’s less than you think. It’s wonderful when we have a week beforehand, but often times it’s just a couple of days and sometimes we have the reading and the next day you’re shooting the scene. That said, that has never happened on the first episode, which would be so much more difficult, because once you’re in the rhythm and back working…
Omari has a phenomenal memory and never has a hard time getting things right beforehand. I’m in the habit of winging it somehow, so it’s okay. But some people get panicky and you have to bring that in, so that’s when the luxury of trusting your team and trusting yourself comes in handy.
This season you’re in a more independent role and not under Ghost…
JS: I don’t think he’s ever been under Ghost. In his mind he has never felt he was under Ghost. My favorite dessert is the classic black and white cookie and that’s how Tommy envisions the relationship, it’s like the cookie. One half is white, one half is black. It’s a cookie.
Now Tommy has got to be the whole cookie. The veil has been removed from Tommy’s eyes and getting into season three, Tommy’s fear of having to set all this up, do all this work, make all these decisions about who’s going to sit at the table, get the product in and sell it, but it gets revealed to Tommy that, “I’ve been doing this by myself a lot longer than I’ve thought.”
There’s extra pressures with that but coupled with the ultimatum of having to kill Ghost and how do you take care of that the same time you’re running your operation, growing and expanding that. So it’s pretty exciting — it’s a huge journey for Tommy this year.
It puts more responsibility on him — and you?
JS: Absolutely. And what old habits are bad for him and what old habits are good? This is real trial by fire.
Given you must like that there’s a trend towards Chicago on TV — even though you are working here in New York.
JS: I would like nothing better, but that said, I’ve been in New York a long time now and I will never leave. I would love to be bi-coastal, New York and Chicago, and I’ll always be a Chicagoan, but I’ll always remain in New York.
What did it take to get back into the mode when you had the break?
JS: It takes a little bit. I definitely know how lucky I am to have such a great role, so I make sure I take the time that I need to review the season, read old scripts that were important to the character and get back into it. Then you show up and you have a magnificent team you can trust and you make some great television.
Thought about returning to theater on your off time?
JS: All the time; I’d love to. I’ve got an extensive theater resume, but it’s really hard in New York. I’m an ensemble member of the Irish Rep Theatre here in New York and I’d love to get back there to do some more work. Ciarán O’Reilly is a magnificent human and a good friend.
I wouldn’t mind being back on Broadway, but I can’t believe how hard it is to get these auditions sometimes. New York is more cliquey than Chicago is, but maybe it’s because I’m from Chicago. Chicago is less cliquey, it’s called the “city of big shoulders” for a reason, and it’s because we do work, and we don’t talk about it as much, we just do it.
I hope we see you have a song-and-dance role soon.
JS: Me too.
What would you want to do if you had one? Not “Chicago?”
JS: “Chicago” would be great. I’m trying to think. I’d love to do “Les Miserables!”
