\n<\/p>\n
Patina Miller may play a fearless New York City drug queenpin inspired by 50 Cent\u2019s mother on television, but for a long time, something scared her: having a child of her own.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought maybe I wouldn\u2019t be good at it,\u201d said Ms. Miller, 40, who plays the indomitable Raquel Thomas on the crime drama \u201cPower Book III: Raising Kanan.\u201d (The fourth season premieres Friday on Starz.)<\/p>\n
\u201cI was always afraid of holding other people\u2019s babies because I thought I\u2019d break them,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
But now that she is a mother \u2014 to a 7-year-old daughter, Emerson Harper Mars, with her husband, the venture capitalist David Mars \u2014 she couldn\u2019t imagine her life any other way.<\/p>\n
\u201cSundays are about being comfy, being with family,\u201d said Ms. Miller, whose 15-year-old niece, Alanna Miller, also lives with her. She added, \u201cIt\u2019s nice to sit and talk to each other without being on our phones.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Ms. Miller was born in Pageland, S.C., and raised by a single mother who encouraged her love for gospel music. She has lived in New York since 2007, when she moved from South Carolina after college and subsequently landed her breakout role as the nightclub singer Deloris Van Cartier in the Broadway adaptation of \u201cSister Act.\u201d She won a Tony Award in 2013 for her performance as a circus artist in the musical \u201cPippin.\u201d<\/p>\n
She has called the Upper West Side home for the past three years. Her family lives in a brownstone between Central Park and Riverside Park with their English bulldog, Maddie.<\/p>\n
RISE AND RUN <\/strong>I try to sleep in a little bit, ideally until 9, but sometimes only until 7:30 or 8. It depends on where I\u2019m at in marathon training. Sundays are my long run day, and that can be anywhere from six to 20 miles.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n WAKE UP, SLEEPYHEAD<\/strong> I\u2019ll make sure my daughter is up and ready and make her breakfast. She loves oatmeal with some berries and banana, maybe a yogurt pouch on the side. She\u2019s a very simple girl in the morning.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n I can\u2019t eat a big meal before a run, so I\u2019ll have oatmeal, a cup of mixed berries with some maple syrup and a little bit of protein powder. I try not to do too much protein, just because it can bug your stomach if you\u2019re not careful.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n MARATHON MIND-SET <\/strong>In 2021, one of my trainers, Beth from The Limit, ran marathons, and was like, \u201dYou should do it.\u201d So I signed up randomly, out of the blue, and then was like, \u201cOh, my God, what did I just do?\u201d<\/p>\n I remember just walking up a block cursing at myself, like, \u201cI can\u2019t do this,\u201d and then giving myself a pep talk, like, \u201cI can do anything.\u201d I kept at it, and the next thing you know, I was running four miles, and then I was running six, and then I was running eight, 10. And then my birthday happened to be the same day as the 2022 New York City Marathon. And the thing about me is, I love a challenge. Ever since then, I\u2019m just like: \u201cHow can I be better? How can I get faster? How can I be stronger?\u201d<\/p>\n CONQUERING CENTRAL PARK <\/strong>My nemesis is Central Park. It\u2019s sneakily super difficult to run. There are the rolling hills, and it\u2019s such a hard six-mile path. It\u2019s so good for you, though. When I just want to feel good about myself, I love running on the West Side Highway, all the way up past 125th, or all the way down to South Street Seaport.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n CHARACTER STUDY<\/strong> I have an R&B Sunday run playlist, but then when I really need some motivation, I listen to hip-hop, rap, Top 40, things with a real good beat. Eminem\u2019s \u201cLose Yourself\u201d is a really good one for Central Park. And sometimes I will go into character and use those moments to memorize lines.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n BACON AND EGGS <\/strong>My daughter goes to swim class at Asphalt Green<\/a> on the Upper East Side. Then we\u2019ll meet my husband and niece for brunch. We love Friedman\u2019s<\/a>; The Smith<\/a>; ABC Kitchen<\/a>. We\u2019ll order pancakes, bacon, eggs, avocado. My daughter\u2019s favorite is the biscuits with butter and jelly at Chez Nick<\/a>.<\/p>\n STUDIO TIME<\/strong> I go to a studio called Invite Only<\/a>, which is down in Chelsea in my old neighborhood. I\u2019m in the process of working on an E.P. The weekends become that time where I can kind of switch gears creatively.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n I\u2019ve been waiting a long time to do music of my own because I wanted to have something to say. There\u2019s Afrobeat, there\u2019s R&B, there\u2019s a little bit of rock, pop, soul. It\u2019s an E.P. to introduce my sound \u2014 me as an artist, me as a vocalist, me as a writer. I cannot wait until it\u2019s done. I\u2019m frightened, obviously, with putting my baby out in the world, but I\u2019m having a really, really good time in the studio working on it.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n FAMILY DINNER <\/strong>We usually eat around 7:30 p.m. During the week, we\u2019re blessed to have a nanny, because I\u2019m not able to cook when I\u2019m working, so weekends are for me to kind of pull it out. I make a really good salmon; it\u2019s very simple, because my daughter is very picky. And then steamed broccoli or roasted broccoli \u2014 she likes the crunch \u2014 and jasmine rice on the side. My niece also loves to experiment in the kitchen, so we love taste-testing all of her food!<\/p>\n MOVIE NIGHT <\/strong>My daughter is into anything animated \u2014 she\u2019s an \u201cElemental\u201d girl. And she just saw \u201cDog Man\u201d and \u201cMoana 2\u201d at the theater. We catch movies whenever we can. She\u2019s a huge \u201cBluey\u201d fan, so we might end up watching that, too.<\/p>\n JUST FOR US<\/strong> My husband and I like to put our daughter to bed together. We love to read to her, and she reads to us. Work sometimes bleeds into the weekend and you have to make sacrifices, but I always make sure I\u2019m back enough to have time with her.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n And my niece as well. I\u2019ll brush her hair, and she\u2019ll tell me what\u2019s going on, or what she\u2019s excited about for school the next day. She loves to craft, so maybe we work on something, or sing songs together. I\u2019m really just trying to pour into her.<\/p>\n SKIN CARE AND STRETCH<\/strong> I\u2019ll take a hot shower, do some stretching. I\u2019m really into skin care \u2014 I\u2019ll wash my face, do my toner, put on a mask. I\u2019ll put on a hydrating serum, let that sit, and put on another serum for spots, or if I have some discoloration. And then I put on oil \u2014 I love The Beauty Sandwich, especially their Snatching Sauce. Their founder, Iv\u00e1n Pol, does the most amazing facials<\/a>. Any time he\u2019s in New York, I see him \u2014 along with every other actress in Hollywood, it seems.<\/p>\n WINDING DOWN<\/strong> I\u2019ll climb into bed around midnight, but I\u2019m not ready to fall asleep yet! I\u2019m scrolling my phone, seeing what else I can put in my Amazon cart.<\/p>\n I finally drift off to rain sounds. It\u2019s so soothing.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n