10 Things Joseph Sikora Can’t Live Without

It says, Dear Joe,

it’s good to be working with you again.

Martin Scorsese.

That was my Martin Scorsese imitation.

[upbeat music]

What’s up everybody?

This is Joseph Sikora and this is GQ’s

10 Things That I Cannot Live Without.

[upbeat music continues]

Look at the color of my skin. I’m translucent.

Sunscreen is very important to me

because, like I always say,

I come in the colors of the Polish flag, white and red.

I got one here for my rosacea.

I got my New York favorite, Kiehl’s.

Another like fancy pants one

that my wife has me wear every now and again.

Full body. Arms, everywhere.

Like give me my SPFs, make sure they’re on my face.

I wear them rain or shine, summer or winter.

I gotta have sunscreen on at all times.

[mellow upbeat music]

My next essential item is a yoga mat.

I try to take one everywhere I go.

It’s just nice to have this.

I was doing a movie with Deon Taylor called Fear

that you should go check out.

And I was doing jump squats in a HIIT class,

and I broke my kneecap

because I was doing it on a concrete and stone floor.

So now I wisely, after I healed,

bring my yoga mat everywhere that I can

because you need a little bit of cushioning.

I love to do yoga, but I also love HIIT classes.

And I have found you don’t need a whole lot of weight

to get results.

You just need to not eat as much as I want to

and be consistent.

[upbeat music]

People say, you know, eat to live, don’t live to.

I live to eat, and I don’t care.

And one of those items is giardiniera.

Especially hot giardiniera.

Now, the GQ team, as talented and as wonderful as they are,

this is not Chicago authentic giardiniera.

It might do in a pinch, I gotta tell you.

I put it on everything.

I put it on pasta. I put it on pizza.

Anything even slightly Italian.

I put it on sandwiches.

I love an Italian hero, of course.

You have to put it on Italian beef.

And I get my beef dipped.

It’s kind of this wonderful mash of au jous and giardiniera

with spicy oil and… [lips smack]

Made my mouth water, just now.

Check it out.

I’m not opposed to licking my fingers either.

We got a good piece of cauliflower here too.

Cauliflower’s good.

It’s heavy on the pickling, on the vinegar,

which you don’t want to be overpowered by the vinegar.

This is super not Chicago, and it’s super watery here.

In Chicago it would just be pure oil.

This ain’t hitting right, Bob.

It’s a decent try.

And this is mild. [groans]

I’m already nervous.

Oh, my God. No oil, just in water.

Bizarrely, it’s almost better

because without the spice it’s like it’s a different animal.

Pickled vegetable, but it’s just,

there’s kind of a freshness.

As you can tell, there’s a crunch to it.

I’m gonna give it a solid two and say peace.

Okay, for my next essential,

it’s a bit of a surprise.

It’s actually a beautiful hero sandwich for you.

No, it is a very special and dear thing to me.

From my good friend, the Drama King,

the Street Sweeper, DJ Kay Slay.

He made this for me with my graffiti name on it.

He put DEZ TMT,

which is a huge honor growing up being a graffiti writer,

having that be so much a part of my identity,

part of the reality of my urban experience.

DEZ 1 is one of the prominent graffiti writers

of all time in history.

This is a beautiful reminder of meeting one of your heroes.

And this is super special to me.

I can’t believe I’m getting choked up.

I’m a little embarrassed.

He gave me a lot of belief in my myself

and my claim that maybe rap is something you do

but hip hop is something you live.

My playlist?

I’m all over the place, but I’m…

I love that golden era of hip hop.

You know, Rakim is always on my top five.

And Big L and Jeru The Damaja, Big Daddy Kane.

And I love, still love Kool Moe Dee,

and I love the war between Kool Moe Dee and LL.

And you know, it was kind of that golden era of hip hop

that brought the brands like, you know,

Brand Nubian and Jungle Brothers and Tribe

and just this wonderfully inclusive era of hip hop

that was respectful to everybody in some capacity.

And it was about knowledge and progression.

It felt good.

[mellow music]

Next essential item that I can’t live without,

it’s my money clip, money grip.

A money clip is so much better than a wallet for me

because it’s just, you pop it out,

you got all your bills here.

Can’t go nowhere without a hundo.

This will buy me a coffee and a sandwich in New York.

I have a funny little Visa card that you can get clothes on,

that my mother-in-law gave me.

And I think it’s got 50 bucks on here

and I still haven’t spent it.

I’m kind of a cash guy.

And then I have my Chicago Ventra card.

It’s the Chicago version of this.

This is for the the L train, the C T A.

I didn’t have these forever ’cause I was against them.

One of my favorite possessions is my MetroCard.

How do you get anywhere in New York without a MetroCard?

When people are too bougie to have a MetroCard,

I’m sorry for you sitting in traffic

and breathing in those fumes when you’d be surrounded

by wonderful New Yorkers in a sea of humanity

and get wherever you need to go in all of the five boroughs.

I like tangible stuff.

[mellow music]

This lion, the leo.

This is one of my essentials

’cause it was a really difficult time in my life.

I had recently gotten stage fright here in New York

on Broadway.

And then I ended up doing a play

at Chicago Shakespeare Cymbeline.

Chaon Cross, who played Imogen, the lead in the play.

And I played her star-crossed lover, Posthumus Leonatus,

which obviously Leonatus meaning the lion.

She gave me this afterwards

and it was a long journey for both of us.

She’s one of the country’s

premier Shakespearean actresses, Chaon Cross, and I’m not.

She gave me this afterwards

because we really came far in our friendship

and going through a Shakespeare play,

the Bard’s words are pretty difficult a lot of the time.

And it was really an accomplishment

and the beginning to getting over my stage fright,

which took me about 10 years to get over.

And I’m still getting over it.

I still have stage fright,

but it was during The Power show

where I felt the freedom again to play,

and not to be quite as stressed and have fun in the moment.

And I’m eternally grateful for that.

And this reminds me that I’m eternally grateful,

and I can conquer my fears.

A big bad lion. [imitates lion roar]

[mellow music]

My next essential is a thank you card

from a very special director named Martin Scorsese.

This is when I was doing Boardwalk Empire.

I had just done a tiny little role in Shutter Island

and then I got cast in Boardwalk Empire.

And it’s also very special because on the same day

that I got this thank you card from Martin Scorsese

is the exact same day

when I first met the woman who would become my wife.

So, very special.

It took me a long time. I’d been acting 37 years.

Because I was not successful but consistently acting,

mainly doing theater in Chicago,

I’d never really claimed being an actor.

It wasn’t until probably about 15 years ago

that I felt like, you know, I’m an actor.

And a certain sense of coming into my own,

being the person that I was becoming and owning it.

And Marty was incredible.

You know, I’m a Chicagoan. I’m too humble.

Oh, I’m just happy to be here and stuff.

And he’s like, No, no, you’re here for a reason.

You know, stand up, be proud, put your chest out.

What do you got there in the notebook? And I’m like,

Oh, I just wrote the backstory for this character.

He goes, Read me the whole thing.

So I ended up reading Martin Scorsese

three full, single line, college-ruled pages

of my backstory of my character.

It made me feel really good and important,

and I’m grateful, super grateful to him.

And it’s kind of a,

that was kind of really a starting point

for the rest of my career.

It says, Dear Joe,

It’s good to be working with you again.

Martin Scorsese.

That was my Martin Scorsese imitation.

[mellow upbeat music]

My next essential is the dog tags.

It says James Barr,

which is the character that I played

in the Jack Reacher movie.

Tom Cruise’s Jack Reacher movie.

Why are these so important to me?

It was more than just the character,

but it was the relationships.

Obviously, I love Tom Cruise.

I’d love to work with Tom again.

He’s a consummate professional.

I can’t say enough nice things about Tom Cruise.

A super nice guy.

Always remembered my name.

Consummate professional

and demanded that you bring your A game.

I am for all of those things.

But I met one of my best friends, Jai Courtney.

I’m so grateful for the friends that I’ve made

in the entertainment industry, other actors,

’cause I think it’s harder than you think.

There’s such a weirdness in this business.

Competitiveness, judgmentalness, jadedness.

So when you find the good ones,

you want to keep them close.

To play a pretty backwards, awful murderer, James Barr,

and to walk away with so many positive things

is no small feat.

[Crewperson] Do you keep a lot of props from the shows?

Not a lot.

I kept a bullet that Tommy used,

the blank to kill Angela. But it is fun to look at.

I’m just like, Oh, look at this.

This is the one that, this is the one that got her.

[mellow music]

Next up on this journey,

art from the Sikora family.

The first up I’m gonna show you

it’s a charcoal drawing that my little niece did.

And I think she was six years old when she did this.

And my wife and I were just blown away.

Arwen, you are an incredible artist. Don’t ever stop.

And I have no idea what this means.

And I’m wondering if a, you know, a six-year old

or maybe she was eight, but no older than that,

knew what, necessarily, this means either.

But it’s like such a wonderful reason to make art,

is just to express.

Something I think everybody sees

is love and unity and oneness.

Part two is my mom’s painting of a sunset

in New Buffalo, Michigan.

Isn’t that unbelievable?

Like every time I look at it, I feel like it’s a window

and I’m actually watching the sunset.

My third thing is this box

that my brother made for me for Christmas.

And I don’t know which Christmas.

You probably can’t see

but there’s a little Santa Claus on there

done with crayons.

And it says here,

Joe, I’m sorry for all the bad things I did.

I keep this box every single place I’ve ever lived.

I store different things in here.

Oh, and here, look there’s ET.

My grandmother was an artist.

Art was always something that she did.

My mother is an incredible artist.

And I’m okay.

Hey, thanks for having me, GQ.

I loved sharing my 10 essentials right now.

And don’t forget,

you gotta watch Power Book IV: Force

September 1st on Starz.