What You Don't Know About Joseph Sikora
For a lot of people, Joseph Sikora hit the big time when he was cast as Tommy Egan in "Power," the first installment in what would quickly become a television behemoth. But Sikora has been acting for decades in stage productions, TV shows, and films (per IMDb).
In 2022, Sikora celebrated the success of his own "Power" spin-off, "Power Book IV: Force." Returning to play Tommy Egan in his own show has been a wild ride for Sikora, who was excited to shoot the show in his hometown of Chicago, as he told Nicki Swift.
Of course, there is a lot more to Sikora than just one character he's played for nearly a decade. From his early start to acting to his beginnings as a theater actor to his wife's thoughts on his popular character, here are a few things you might not know about the star of "Force," Joseph Sikora.
Joseph Sikora is from Chicago
Joseph Sikora's character, Tommy Egan, might have found himself in a new city on "Power Book IV: Force," but it turns out that Sikora himself is a Chicago native. Sikora admitted to Nicki Swift that he didn't have much to do with the decision to set the show in Chicago, and, despite the fact that he hasn't lived in the city for years, he's happy to return to his roots. In fact, it turns out that his being away from the city for a while is an asset. "I really had to relearn the city again, which was exciting for me, because one of the attractions for playing Tommy still, and going into the spinoff was finding Tommy at a place that we've never seen him in the 'Power' show, with nothing," he said.
Shooting the show in his hometown has also given Sikora the opportunity to see the city in a brand-new way. Chicago is not only his hometown, but it's also home to one of the most exciting times in his career, as he told Nicki Swift. Sikora added that, because he moved away from Chicago at the age of 21, being back for "Power" means he is able to completely re-experience the city.
He began acting as a child
When Joseph Sikora was growing up, his mother took him to an open call for "A Christmas Carol" in Chicago, and he was hooked. As he told Untitled Magazine, the performance was the biggest in the city. The experience taught him a valuable lesson about his acting career: that singing wasn't exactly his thing. However, he was a talented performer, and Tara Lonzo, the casting director for the play, suggested he audition for an upcoming production of "The Little Prince." Though getting to rehearsals was tiring because of the far distance from his home, the role helped launch his career.
Sikora said his professional career kicked off a year after joining the Screen Actor's Guild in 1998. He told Untitled Magazine that his breakthrough experience came while filming the HBO movie "Normal" with Tom Wilkinson. According to Sikora, Wilkinson gave him valuable career advice that he still remembers to this day. As Sikora explained, "He said something like, 'All you have to do is think the line and the camera will read it.'" Sikora took this to mean that once you commit to a role, the lines come out easily on camera.
Joseph Sikora considers himself a theater actor
While Joseph Sikora has gained widespread fame through his portrayal of Tommy Egan in the "Power" series on Starz, he considers himself, first and foremost, a theater actor. After all, that's where Sikora got his start as a child (per Untitled Magazine), and the training he received while performing on stage informs the way he prepares for any role he has now. As he told Nerds That Geek, when it's time to prepare for a scene as Tommy, he goes right back to what he learned. "I'm a theatre actor, originally. And I still prepare in the same way, I do a lot of homework at home, and I get up, and I show up being prepared. But I also show up being very malleable," he explained.
Sikora added to Nerds That Geek that being able to learn his lines inside and out while also having the ability to be flexible in the moment has made his experience as an actor that much richer. Being able to focus on the present is, as he put it, "where the magic lies."
The actor was a graffiti artist as a teen
In an appearance on the "Rickey Smiley Morning Show," Joseph Sikora revealed a fun and, perhaps, surprising fact about himself: He has created graffiti art since he was an 11-year-old kid growing up in Chicago. As he told the show's host, he was part of a group known as JS4, and some of their graffiti can even be found in the streets of Chicago to this day.
Sikora also spoke about his graffiti days to Chicago Magazine back in 2016. He explained that the group was made up of a diverse set of friends who are still close. "It's a great and diverse group of guys that actually, when I was growing up, consisted of guys who were very strait-laced to very involved gangbangers, and gangbangers on both sides," he said. "The subculture of graffiti was a strange and unique opportunity to bring people together."
Joseph Sikora loves playing Tommy Egan
Joseph Sikora has played Tommy Egan since "Power" began in 2014, but, in 2022, he told Open Tapes that he genuinely never gets tired of returning to the character. While explaining that part of the gift of working on the spin-off, "Power Book IV: Force," is that he gets to explore new sides to the character, Sikora said, "His fragile side will find much more space here. Chicago displaces him because it's not like New York: at first he thinks he can rely on its rules of the game, but he's no longer leading the game."
Sikora has also shared that he and his character share a few similarities — but, as he put it, they are all parts of him that he puts into the role. As Sikora told Nicki Swift, he shares a temperament with the character — but only to a point. "We're both very loyal. We're both very heated. We get heated very fast. But, unlike Tommy, I've gone to anger management therapy, and I still see my therapist every week," he explained, "and I work on my mental health, whereas Tommy does not."
But his wife doesn't like the character quite as much
Joseph Sikora is pretty guarded when it comes to his private life, but he has referenced his wife quite a few times in interviews and on Twitter. In fact, one fact Sikora has underscored over and over again is that, once he comes home from work, his wife requests that he leave his character, Tommy Egan, and all of his behaviors at the door. In 2016, he even admitted on Twitter that he does his "best" to not bring the character home with him because "my wife doesn't like Tommy."
Per Big Boy TV, in 2020, Sikora revealed that he and his wife almost didn't make it through the long haul due to his own anger issues. In the end, Sikora said that once he committed to anger management therapy, the pair got married, and, ever since, his wife has been his rock.
His favorite love scene in a movie stars Richard Gere
As an actor, it's not surprising that Joseph Sikora is a big fan of TV shows and movies himself. When asked what his favorite movie of all time is during a conversation with Untitled Magazine, Sikora opted to keep it real. "I'm just going to be honest and say 'Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels' is my favorite movie," he revealed. "Best buddy flick of all time. I still watch it at least once a year."
In that vein, when the magazine writer asked the "Power" star about his favorite love scene from a movie (a question he found particularly compelling), Sikora's answer might surprise you. While explaining that the scene originally scared him as a child, he shared, "The scene in 'An Officer and a Gentleman' where Richard Gere picks up Debra Winger and takes her back to his hotel room. It's sexy and hard and soft and passionate and full and exhausting in the best way." As Sikora put it, he felt fearful of the scene because it was so authentic — something we don't always see in love scenes these days.
Joseph Sikora would be a firefighter if he wasn't an actor
While it's probably hard for Joseph Sikora to imagine a world outside of acting at this point, he told Untitled Magazine that, if he wasn't an actor, he would have been a firefighter. "Pretty sure I would be a Chicago Fireman, but I guess I could be into acting and still be a fireman," he said, adding, "There are a few excellent actors in Chicago and New York that I've met throughout my career who are also working firemen."
This isn't the first time Sikora has spoken about the alternate direction his career might have taken. In an interview with Chicago Magazine, he explained that his neighborhoods growing up (Jefferson Park and Norwood Park) are firefighter enclaves and that being a fireman was the clear path to take where he's from. Maybe, with his Chicago upbringing, he could even teach a thing or two about firefighting to the producers of "Chicago Fire." It's a little tough to picture Tommy Egan, the firefighter, but Joseph Sikora? That actually makes sense.