𝗸𝗿𝗮𝘅𝗶𝘀.

I'm endlessly grateful to Joe for what he did with Nicki. Even with all the ways the show distorted the canon, even with all the pain of seeing the story reshaped his performance was a true saving grace. He managed to convey a depth that the script, seemingly, never intended. In every gesture, every glance, in that raw vulnerability that shone through the screen, I recognized the book Nicki the one who loved Lestat like no one else.

Joe is a theater actor. And it shows in every scene. In his physicality, in his voice, in the way he fills the space around him. He doesn't just play he lives it. There's that particular theatrical richness in him, where a character isn't confined to a single layer but breathes on multiple levels at once. He can be tender and devastating in one scene, tragic and haunting in the next. It makes you see Nicki differently not just as a "mad violinist."

I think it's precisely because of his theatrical background that Joe managed to make Nicki feel alive even within the limits the show gave him. He filled the role with what wasn't in the script: pain that doesn't scream but stays silent; fear hidden behind bravado; love that can't fit into screentime.

I don't know what Nicki would have been without Joe. But with him he stayed in my heart.