Patina Miller is having a busy month. Not only is the Tony Award–winner back on Broadway with Into the Woods after an eight-year hiatus, but she’s also starring in Season 2 of STARZ’s Power Book III: Raising Kanan, playing Raquel ‘Raq’ Thomas. As Miller told us, being busy on stage every night is great, but she also loves looking forward to some post-show skin-care rituals.
Congrats on being back on Broadway. How is it going?
“Everything is going so well—it’s going better than I could have ever imagined. There is a reason why theater is my first love; I love being back on stage in this way, telling the story, with an incredible group of artists that I get to perform with every night. It just makes it so much sweeter. I’m having the best, best time.”
What did you miss about it the most?
“I think I missed the camaraderie, the whole theater community. Not that I don’t get that in TV; I am working with an incredible group of artists on my show, Raising Kanan. But there’s something about being in a rehearsal process and the whole intensity that comes with that and the excitement of opening a show and hearing the audience. As a performer, it’s the greatest thing—you can feel the energy coming from the audience. There’s nothing like being on stage in a live setting. I missed the audience.”
How do you mentally prepare to step out on stage?
“If you ever get a chance to follow me behind the scenes, I’m always in a moment. Before I go on, I’m either thinking about my character journey, my character art, boosting myself up, or going over my lyrics to the Witch’s Rap, but I’m always in it. I love staying in it. I love the witch’s role. I love being in the show and I just like plotting my journey throughout the piece. So, you can normally find me being excited before I go on.
I also love watching my fellow performers backstage, so that’s a highlight for me every night—watching how each actor does something different every evening. It’s great. I am very lucky to work with an incredible group of artists and there’s so much learning! I feel like I’m in class every night because we all do learn so much from each other.”
How do you unwind when the show is over?
“I used to have so many rituals, but now that I’m a mother and a wife, I tend to go home, take a shower, a hot shower. I do love doing my nighttime skin-care routine, so that’s really how I calm down—with my beauty routine at the end of the night. Then, I put my little rain music on, and I go to sleep.”
Care to share any favorite products that are part of the routine?
“There are so many! Do you have the time? I am really into Biologique. I love the entire line. I love the milk cleanser that I use every night. It’s really good for washing off the makeup. After that, I do a double cleanse with an enzyme booster, and then I usually would do a mask or sheet mask. Then I use my high-frequency wand because I wear a mask the first half of the show, I sweat, I tend to break out now with all of it. Then I love, love, love the Biologique’s serums and I do an eye cream by Dr. Devgan. And, depending on my skin, I will either use a retinol by my dermatologist or I’ll switch and use a lactic acid by Environ. They have a nice line; I’m loving it. I use the oil and the lactic acid together, which is really great, and depending on how my skin feels, I will either use a moisturizer or skip that step for oil. I also love Tatcha Dewy Skin, or I’ll use La Mer’s face oil.”
Those are some good ones. And now the show is starting a new season. What can fans look forward to?
“Fans should expect that Raquel will still be coming with the fashion, all the cool ‘90s vintage clothing that the first season had is even bigger this season! I’m really excited about the wardrobe. Without giving too much away…Raq now has control of south side Jamaica, Queens, and now she has set her sights on Jersey. So that’s the next piece, expanding her business. This season is all about regaining Kanan’s trust and connecting with them and let’s just say, it’s really explosive and there’s a lot of twists and turns. There’s so much going on. Every character has something that they want and that they’re not going to stop to get. I’m really excited for viewers to go on this journey with us for the second season.”
