“The story of Power is the story of these two brothers. And Season Three is no exception.”
Joseph Sikora has always been one of the primary sources of energy on Starz’s hit drama, Power, now two episodes into its third season. Everything from his character Tommy Egan’s walk, to his clenched jaw, to his sexual appetite consistently brings an intensity to the series that makes it one of the most entertaining and engaging shows on TV right now. But Sikora knows the real reason we watch Power. It’s not for the drugs, the NYC nightlife, the affairs or the American gangster-isms (well, it’s not just for those things); it really comes down to the eternally complex notion of family. Familial bonds—how they form, bend, break and heal—have always been the stuff of great TV. But these relationships pack a lot more punch when great actors are delivering memorable characters. Tommy is as intense and loyal as Eli Gold from The Good Wife, with the comedic bent and relentlessness of Mad Men’s Pete Campbell. Alan Cumming and Vincent Kartheiser may not have been the leading men on their respective shows, but their scene-stealing performances made them crucial members of their teams.
Sikora knows that his role on Power is pivotal, as one-half of the brotherhood between Tommy, and Omari Hardwick’s Ghost/James St. Patrick. But in Season Three, a powerful shift is taking place, as the man behind the Ghost begins to emerge, and the bond of brotherhood is tested, over and over again.
“We’re going to see them go through this epic journey,” Sikora says of Tommy and Ghost. “And they’re going to be different men when the season is over—both of them, in very different ways.”
For Power showrunner and creator Courtney A. Kemp, Season Three is about showcasing Tommy’s necessary evolution, in the face of this broken bond.
“Abuse matures people,” Kemp tells us. “I think that Ghost had abused Tommy and taken advantage of him in a way. I really liked the idea that Tommy had to evolve, because this forced his relationship with Ghost to reach a breaking point.”
What’s exciting about Tommy’s evolution is that we know it’s going to be messy. Sikora has presented us with a wild, strange, highly flawed character, and there seems to be a good chance that his evolution (his stepping into those seats that Ghost is trying to walk away from, as he leaves the drug world behind and evolves into James St. Patrick, legitimate night club owner) could send him down into a rabbit hole of darkness. These questions about where Tommy is headed, and how it will affect his relationship with Ghost, and of course the many other plot elements at work, are the exact questions Kemp hoped to inspire, heading into this new season.
“We put Ghost and Tommy in a bit of a pressure cooker [at the end of Season Two], and we knew that we were going to have to do to address that,” she says. “I like to present myself with challenges and I like to write myself in a corner, because I work best that way. At the end of Season Two, we’d really written ourselves into a corner, so now it’s about how we dive deeper into that.”
Sikora and Kemp both keep mum about where, precisely, this is all heading. But Sikora makes it clear that he’s invested in Power because he’s invested in the art of storytelling. He credits his upbringing in Chicago and his time spent in theater for this passion.
“Theater training is indispensable, especially if you’re acting to tell a story,” he says. ”[Being in the theater] itself just allows you to play such a wide spectrum of characters. Coming up in Chicago, which I think has the largest number of theaters per capita, also made a difference. And there was a certain street element to my life, being a graffiti writer and just spending a lot of times on the streets.”
Playing Tommy, Sikora says, is like a reflection of that world he grew up in, by about “ten fold.”
He may not have been married to the streets like Tommy is, but much like his Power character, Sikora’s loyalty to his chosen family makes it impossible for him to claim sole responsibility for the position he’s in today.
“I would never take full credit for Tommy. It’s been a collaboration between Courtney, Omari and I.”
If Power is the story of two brothers, then it’s a story that wouldn’t be possible without the chemistry between Sikora and Hardwick. Now, with three full seasons of shooting behind them, Sikora says that, surprisingly, their working relationship has not changed much at all.
“I always say a day on the set with Omari is never a day of work. It’s just a day of play,” Sikora says of his co-star. “He’s an absolute gift. We’ve always had a very organic, true chemistry and mutual respect for each other. We approach the craft very similarly—we show up with our lines memorized and our choices made. And we’re absolutely present as actors. How the information is presented to us from the other character informs how we will respond to that character. We developed our characters together. He had input into Tommy, and I had input with Ghost.”
Sikora goes on to describe Kemp, who cut her teeth writing on shows like The Good Wife, as “a genius storyteller.” Without her, he says that he simply wouldn’t have had as much space and opportunity to be as creative as he’s been, shaping Tommy Egan. And for Kemp, none of this works without a collaborative process, which requires ample time for actors like Sikora to work on further developing their characters.
“I try to give the actors as much information as possible,” Kemp explains. “We give them a season arc character packet at the beginning of the year. They get their scripts on time, and we have a reading where they’re allowed to change lines, or include lines that aren’t in the original script. They have a lot of time to work with the material.”
And there’s always room for debate, especially when the ultimate goal is the same: to make very good TV, with compelling, unpredictable characters.
“We’ve enjoyed surprising each other,” Sikora says of his relationship with Kemp. “We have our own takes on the character, and we want that perspective. [If we disagree], it’s like in yoga, where you’re doing a stretch. It’s in the name of progression. That’s what Courtney and I expect of each other.”
The relationship works especially well, Sikora says, because they “both have no desire to make a two-dimensional character.”
And as a result of this flexibility, we get someone like Tommy Egan, who’s not easily pinned down. On the one hand, he’s the kind of guy who’ll throw you off a roof—as we saw in the Season Three premiere, “Call Me James”—if you question his authority. On the other hand, he’ll roll you up in bubble wrap first, so you just suffer a few broken bones—and so he can have a good laugh. (Then again, on the other, other hand, he might shoot the guy next to you—also rolled up in bubble wrap—just to prove a point.) When I bring up my personal favorite scene from the entire series, Sikora agrees that Tommy’s post-threesome meltdown in Season Two’s “You’re Not the Man,” which ended with him sitting on a bed, naked and cuddling a dog, was iconic. And it also encapsulates everything that makes Tommy, Tommy.
“Yes, that’s the best way to block your manhood: with a puppy,” he laughs. “Tommy has become the comic relief, and I’ve always worked towards that. For whatever reason, I have an intensity within myself that’ll always be there. So I try to look for comedy—never to force it—but to always have my antenna up.”
In reminiscing about the scene, Sikora also makes a point to give credit to the episode’s director, Dennie Gordon.
“She is excellent. And she’s very good at finding places of levity. And levity makes things real. There’s tons of situations where something dramatic is happening, but then there’s a joke that’s cracked. That’s real life.”
We won’t get the chance to see more of Gordon’s work this season on Power, but Kemp speaks highly of a couple of other directors she was thrilled to have on set.
“I really loved working with Rob Hardy [on episode seven, airing August 28], and Sanford Booksaver [on episode two, which aired Sunday, and episode five, airing August 14],” Kemp says. “Those two guys work in broadcast a lot, so they were so excited to dive into the premium cable world.
This season will also feature more time spent with Sikora and Lucy Walters, who he describes as a true “gift of a scene partner.” There’s never a dull moment when these two, as Tommy and Holly, are in the same room.
“It’s like two fire signs,” Sikora says. ”[Tommy and Holly are] birds of a feather, but it’s all-consuming, and dangerous and exciting to watch.”
I describe their onscreen relationship as equal parts exciting and terrifying, and Sikora agrees. But, like most relationships on Power, it’s a little more complicated than that. In spite of the dysfunction, there’s more loyalty between Tommy and Holly than we see in most of the amorous relationships on the show. Unlike Ghost and Angela (Lela Loren), Tommy doesn’t have to pretend to be someone else, or hide his darker tendencies, when he’s with Holly. He doesn’t have to lie, like Ghost does with Tasha (Naturi Naughton) in an attempt to get what he wants.
“Ultimately, they’re trying,” Sikora says, laughing. “They’re not great at it, but they’re trying. You have this deceitful Holly, and this super-honest Tommy. They’re yin and yang in that way, but they really are Bonnie and Clyde. They’re both dangerous. Holly is manipulative, but she’s also proven herself to be trustworthy—she chose love over money. And she chose commitment over freedom, in some ways.” Her decision to stand by Tommy is no small thing, considering the losses this character suffered.
“Loyalty is something Tommy’s been lacking in Ghost,” Sikora explains. “So he sees in Holly the possibility of something he’s lost: family.”
But Kemp is happy to note that all of the women characters on the show, Holly included, will also be doing far more than just standing by their men.
“They’re all stepping out a little, in terms of being defined by their men,” Kemp says. Even still, the relationship drama will continue to contribute to the Power dynamics.
“Angela has really made a bad bargain with Ghost,” Kemp goes on to say. “She still wants to pursue her ultimate goal, which is convicting Lobos, but now she’s also got to keep her boyfriend out of jail. Holly’s also trying to keep her boyfriend out of jail, and Tasha’s trying to protect her kids and protect herself. But they’re all going to find independence in those stories.”
And Sikora is just as excited about Tommy’s movements this season, as he is about everyone else’s.
“It’s all the energy of the second season, plus there’s this added fear of always looking over your shoulder, and all these new revelations for these characters we’ve been with for three seasons,” Sikora says. “Revelations about the main characters, and really a lot about the supporting characters.”
Kemp is enthusiastic about such revelations, adding that, “It was really exciting to work with Rotimi—his character, Dre, expands this season.” She also mentions one of the most ruthless TV villains today, Kanan (played by Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson, who’s also a producer on the show), noting that he posed a welcome challenge this year “because of his difficult arc.”
And Sikora had his own welcome challenges. He won’t say much, but he says that his hardest day on set came when they shot an episode that primarily takes place in Tommy’s apartment.
“That was a very difficult day,” Sikora says. “To be so contained and in the same space. But the confinement added to the story, and to the immediacy. The fans will know what I mean when they see it.”
While it’s going to be quite a thrill watching Sikora develop this character over the years (the show was recently renewed by Starz for two more seasons, after a record-breaking premiere), fans of his work are equally excited at the prospect of him stepping outside of the Power universe, as he did earlier this year, with a minor role on one of the best new shows on TV, Underground. He was invited by Anthony Hemingway, who directed a couple of Season One Power episodes, and reached out to Sikora to ask him to send in some ideas for the role.
“Even though it was a small part, it helped expand that world,” Sikora says. “The thriller aspect of Underground was something that I really loved. It was this great story of American history and African-American history.”
And as much as we needed a story like Underground in 2016, we need stories like Power as well. It continues to stand out, as a contemporary, high-octane drama where capitalism, the law and the streets collide, where brotherhood and love are essential—but also liabilities. As Tommy and Joseph Sikora continue to step out of the shadows, the sky’s the limit for the series, and for an actor so committed to his craft. After all, “this is a big rich town.” And Sikora has proven that he’s earned the right to keep shining.
Shannon M. Houston is a Staff Writer and the TV Editor for Paste. This New York-based writer probably has more babies than you, but that’s okay; you can still be friends. She welcomes almost all follows on Twitter.