Patina Miller may play a fearless New York City drug queenpin inspired by 50 Cent’s mother on television, but for a long time, something scared her: having a child of her own.
“I thought maybe I wouldn’t be good at it,” said Ms. Miller, 40, who plays the indomitable Raquel Thomas on the crime drama “Power Book III: Raising Kanan.” (The fourth season premieres Friday on Starz.)
“I was always afraid of holding other people’s babies because I thought I’d break them,” she said.
But now that she is a mother — to a 7-year-old daughter, Emerson Harper Mars, with her husband, the venture capitalist David Mars — she couldn’t imagine her life any other way.
“Sundays are about being comfy, being with family,” said Ms. Miller, whose 15-year-old niece, Alanna Miller, also lives with her. She added, “It’s nice to sit and talk to each other without being on our phones.”
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 “Sister Act.” She won a Tony Award in 2013 for her performance as a circus artist in the musical “Pippin.”
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.
RISE AND RUN I try to sleep in a little bit, ideally until 9, but sometimes only until 7:30 or 8. It depends on where I’m at in marathon training. Sundays are my long run day, and that can be anywhere from six to 20 miles.
WAKE UP, SLEEPYHEAD I’ll 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’s a very simple girl in the morning.
I can’t eat a big meal before a run, so I’ll 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’re not careful.
MARATHON MIND-SET In 2021, one of my trainers, Beth from The Limit, ran marathons, and was like, ”You should do it.” So I signed up randomly, out of the blue, and then was like, “Oh, my God, what did I just do?”
I remember just walking up a block cursing at myself, like, “I can’t do this,” and then giving myself a pep talk, like, “I can do anything.” 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’m just like: “How can I be better? How can I get faster? How can I be stronger?”
CONQUERING CENTRAL PARK My nemesis is Central Park. It’s sneakily super difficult to run. There are the rolling hills, and it’s such a hard six-mile path. It’s 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.
CHARACTER STUDY 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’s “Lose Yourself” is a really good one for Central Park. And sometimes I will go into character and use those moments to memorize lines.
BACON AND EGGS My daughter goes to swim class at Asphalt Green on the Upper East Side. Then we’ll meet my husband and niece for brunch. We love Friedman’s; The Smith; ABC Kitchen. We’ll order pancakes, bacon, eggs, avocado. My daughter’s favorite is the biscuits with butter and jelly at Chez Nick.
STUDIO TIME I go to a studio called Invite Only, which is down in Chelsea in my old neighborhood. I’m in the process of working on an E.P. The weekends become that time where I can kind of switch gears creatively.
I’ve been waiting a long time to do music of my own because I wanted to have something to say. There’s Afrobeat, there’s R&B, there’s a little bit of rock, pop, soul. It’s an E.P. to introduce my sound — me as an artist, me as a vocalist, me as a writer. I cannot wait until it’s done. I’m frightened, obviously, with putting my baby out in the world, but I’m having a really, really good time in the studio working on it.
FAMILY DINNER We usually eat around 7:30 p.m. During the week, we’re blessed to have a nanny, because I’m not able to cook when I’m working, so weekends are for me to kind of pull it out. I make a really good salmon; it’s very simple, because my daughter is very picky. And then steamed broccoli or roasted broccoli — she likes the crunch — and jasmine rice on the side. My niece also loves to experiment in the kitchen, so we love taste-testing all of her food!
MOVIE NIGHT My daughter is into anything animated — she’s an “Elemental” girl. And she just saw “Dog Man” and “Moana 2” at the theater. We catch movies whenever we can. She’s a huge “Bluey” fan, so we might end up watching that, too.
JUST FOR US 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’m back enough to have time with her.
And my niece as well. I’ll brush her hair, and she’ll tell me what’s going on, or what she’s excited about for school the next day. She loves to craft, so maybe we work on something, or sing songs together. I’m really just trying to pour into her.
SKIN CARE AND STRETCH I’ll take a hot shower, do some stretching. I’m really into skin care — I’ll wash my face, do my toner, put on a mask. I’ll 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 — I love The Beauty Sandwich, especially their Snatching Sauce. Their founder, Iván Pol, does the most amazing facials. Any time he’s in New York, I see him — along with every other actress in Hollywood, it seems.
WINDING DOWN I’ll climb into bed around midnight, but I’m not ready to fall asleep yet! I’m scrolling my phone, seeing what else I can put in my Amazon cart.
I finally drift off to rain sounds. It’s so soothing.
