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How to have the best Sunday in L.A., according to Tia Mowry

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How to have the best Sunday in L.A., according to Tia Mowry

Sunday is Tia Mowry’s favorite day of the week because it’s the day that she gets to do whatever she wants.

“With my career, there’s always some sort of schedule,” the actor and entrepreneur said. But on Sundays, “it’s just really free-flowing. I mean, yes, there are some routines and traditions that we have on Sunday, but it’s not a strict schedule.”

Mowry has been lighting up our TV screens since her debut on the beloved ‘90s sitcom “Sister, Sister” alongside her twin sister, Tamera. Since then, Mowry has picked up several other notable roles on shows and films like “The Game,” “Twitches” and “Family Reunion.” She also starred in a Style Network reality show about her and her sister’s lives called “Tia & Tamera,” released two cookbooks and launched 4u by Tia, a sustainable, science-backed hair care line for natural hair.

In Sunday Funday, L.A. people give us a play-by-play of their ideal Sunday around town. Find ideas and inspiration on where to go, what to eat and how to enjoy life on the weekends.

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The latest venture for the mom of two? Mowry is heading back to reality television to star in WEtv’s “Tia Mowry: My Next Act,” a show about her post-divorce life. “I’m removing the filter like never before,” she wrote on Instagram.

An Army kid born in Germany and raised in multiple parts of the U.S., Mowry said she loves Los Angeles — where she’s lived for more than 30 years — because of the city’s emphasis on wellness. “There’s always some sort of healthy grocery store or smoothie spot or juicing spot [or] great, trendy exercise program all within one block of each other, which is just so beneficial especially when you are a mom,” she said.

Mowry’s ideal Sunday in L.A. involves playtime with her kids (Cairo is 5 and Cree is 12), sweating it out at Equinox and dinner at her favorite pasta spot. Here’s how she’d spend the day.

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This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for length and clarity.

6 a.m.: Meditate, journal and read

The first thing that I do when I wake up is meditate. I literally put a “Do Not Disturb” sign on my door and the kids know. They are 12 and 5. Even the 5-year-old knows not to walk into Mommy’s room when that sign is on and her door is closed. I will meditate for an hour on the weekend.

I’m up at 6 a.m. because I have to get it in before the kids wake up at 7:25 a.m. I don’t know why it’s 7:25 a.m. [Laughs] Then I will do some journaling. I have this really cool manifestation journal where I write down my manifesto every single day and answer some questions. It takes about five minutes. Then I will do about 15 to 20 minutes of reading every Sunday. I just finished reading “Set Boundaries, Find Peace: A Guide to Reclaiming Yourself.” It’s by an amazing Black woman named Nedra Glover Tawwab. She’s a psychologist and this is an incredible book.

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7:25 a.m.: Fun time with the kids

Once I’m done with that, the kids will come in and then they’re playing around, jumping on my bed and it is just fun time. We spend about an hour in my bed just hanging out, giving kisses and cuddles. And of course between the two of them, it’s not always pleasant [laughs]. There might be some back-and-forth between the kids, and some “Mommmmm” [imitates in agitated kid voice]. Then we’re maybe watching “Avatar” or “Bluey.” Basically whoever grabs the remote first, that’s what we’re watching.

9 a.m.: Order in or go out for breakfast

We will sometimes order food on Postmates or we’ll walk to our favorite restaurant. It’s called Le Pain Quotidien. It’s a French breakfast spot. I always order my favorite drink, which is the matcha latte with vanilla extract and oat milk. I usually get the three-egg scramble, which comes with a green salad. And then Cairo will have the pancakes with bananas and extra syrup, and Cree will get a chai latte with oat milk and avocado toast.

I’ve tried everything on that menu. The waiters know us there. And like I said, sometimes I’ll take the kids and we’ll walk. Cree will get on his bike, I will put Cairo in a wagon and we’re off.

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11 a.m. Drop the kids off and go to gym

We’ll come home around 11 a.m., then the kids will hang out at the house. They are either hanging out with grandpa, grandma or uncle Tahj Mowry, and I will go off to my favorite gym, Equinox. I feel like where I’m at right now in my life, it’s not about that intense workout where you’re just so drained after. It’s more about just moving the body. So I will do maybe 20 minutes of a nice walk on the treadmill, then I’ll do another 20 minutes on the Stairmaster. After that, I’ll maybe do a little bit of floor Pilates and some stretching, and that’s it. The steam room is one of my favorite things to do right after a workout. That’s how you know you’re getting older [laughs].

You know, just really, really take care of yourself and fill up your cup, so that you will be able to pour into your children, your work life, your friends and all of that. So that’s like a must.

2:30 p.m. Grocery shopping at Erewhon

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I’ll come back home and freshen up, then I’ll head out to do some grocery shopping. Sometimes the kids will join me; sometimes they won’t. Cree usually loves to join me because he loves food. I will go to Erewhon. I know some people say it’s this bougie grocery spot, but I’ve actually been going there for years before it was even popular.

Grocery shopping is kind of like my zen place. I will go through the recipes in my cookbook, “The Quick Fix Kitchen” or my other cookbook, “Whole New You,” and choose what we’re going to have that week. Then I’ll get everything that we need. I always like to have something planned so I’m not scrambling. I’ll grab some essentials, then come home and unpack. As you can see Sundays are clearly a day that I’m not doing too much cooking cause it’s a chill day.

My favorite smoothie at Erewhon is the Royal Defense 13, which basically just has protein, berries and apple juice. It comes with bananas but I have an allergy, so I usually just get it without and it is so good. I like to keep it very simple.

5:00 p.m. Dinner at Uovo

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One of our favorite things to do is go to a pasta spot called Uovo. The reason we go all the time is because Cairo is obsessed with pasta. If she can eat pasta for breakfast, lunch and dinner, she would. What’s so great about this spot is — ‘cause I’m a foodie — is it’s simple but good, meaning it’s not this huge, massive menu. And they make their pasta fresh. It’s intimate and the waiters know us too. It’s kid-friendly, but it’s also a great environment for adults as well.

Cairo and I love the pasta with the truffle and Parmesan cheese, and Cree loves the beef ravioli. It’s nice to end the day with a nice glass of wine and everyone is full of pasta.

6:30 p.m. Get ice cream for dessert

Uovo only has tiramisu for dessert and the kids always want ice cream, so we’ll go to Salt & Straw. When it opened up, I was so incredibly excited. What I love about it is that it’s unique. The combinations are something that you’ve never heard of, like lavender. It’s not your traditional flavors that you would expect in ice cream, which I think is such an incredible experience and the kids love it.

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7:00 p.m. Get the kids ready for bed

We’re home by 7 p.m. Cree is able to put himself to bed, thank God. [As for] Cairo, I will read her a book and give her a bath. She has her whole routine — she’s so spoiled. She has white noise going and an air purifier with a scent in it. She gets a massage every night. She’s the princess. Then they’re off to bed.

8 p.m. Listen to affirmations until I fall asleep

I will take my shower and do all that kind of stuff, then go to bed [listening] to affirmations. That’s kind of been my new thing. I’m really trying to get enough sleep throughout the night and so I’m in bed at around 9 or 9:30 p.m.

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‘Hamnet’ star Jessie Buckley looks for the ‘shadowy bits’ of her characters

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‘Hamnet’ star Jessie Buckley looks for the ‘shadowy bits’ of her characters

Jessie Buckley has been nominated for an Academy Award for best actress for her portrayal of William Shakespeare’s wife in Hamnet.

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Actor Jessie Buckley says she’s always been drawn to the “shadowy bits” of her characters — aspects that are disobedient, or “too much.” Perhaps that’s what led her to play Agnes, the wife of William Shakespeare, in Hamnet.

Buckley says the film, which is based on Maggie O’Farrell’s 2020 novel, offered a chance to counter a common narrative about the playwright’s wife: that she “had kept him back from his genius,” Buckley says.

But, she adds, “What Maggie O’Farrell so brilliantly did, not just with Agnes and Shakespeare’s wife, but also with Hamnet, their son, was to bring these people … and give them status beside this great man. … [And] give the full landscape of what it is to be a woman.”

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The film is nominated for eight Academy Awards, including best actress for Buckley. In it, she plays a woman deeply connected to nature, who faces conflicts in her marriage, as well as the death of their son Hamnet.

Buckley found out she was pregnant a week after the film wrapped. She’s since given birth to her first child, a daughter.

“The thing that this story offered me, that brought me into this next chapter of my life as a mother was tenderness,” she says. “A mother’s tenderness is ferocious. To love, to birth is no joke. To be born is no joke. And the minute something’s born into the world, you’re always in the precipice of life and death. That’s our path. … I wanted to be a mother so much that that overrode the thought of being afraid of it.”

Jessie Buckley stars as Agnes and Joe Alwyn plays her brother Bartholomew in Hamnet.

Jessie Buckley stars as Agnes and Joe Alwyn plays her brother Bartholomew in Hamnet.

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Interview highlights

On filming the scene where she howls in grief when her son dies

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I didn’t know that that was going to happen or come out, it wasn’t in the script. I think really [director] Chloé [Zhao] asked all of us to dare to be as present as possible. Of course, leading up to it, you’re aware this scene is coming, but that scene doesn’t stand on its own. By the time I’d met that scene, I had developed such a deep bond with Jacobi Jupe, who plays Hamnet, and [co-stars] Paul [Mescal] and Emily Watson, and all the children and we really were a family. And Jacobi Jupe who plays Hamnet is such an incredible little actor and an incredible soul, and we really were a team. …

The death of a child is unfathomable. I don’t know where it begins and ends. Out of utter respect, I tried to touch an imaginary truth of it in our story as best I could, but there’s no way to define that kind of grief. I’m sure it’s different for so many people. And in that moment, all I had was my imagination but also this relationship that was right in front of me with this little boy and that’s what came out of that.

On what inspired her to pursue singing growing up

I grew up around a lot of music. My mom is a harpist and a singer and my dad has always been passionate about music, so it was always something in our house and always something that was encouraged. … Early on, I have very strong memories of seeing and hearing my mom sing in church and this quite intense mercurial conversation that would happen between her, the story and the people that would listen to her. And at the end of it, something had been cracked between them and these strangers would come up with tears in their eyes. And I guess I saw the power of storytelling through my mom’s singing at a very young age, and that was definitely something that made me think I want to do that.

On her first big break performing as a teen on the BBC singing competition I’d Do Anything — and being criticized by judges about her physical appearance

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I was raw. I hadn’t trained. I had a lot to learn and to grow in. I was only 17. I think there was part of their criticism which I think was destructive and unfair when it became about my awkwardness, or they would say I was masculine and send me to kind of a femininity school. … They sent me to [the musical production of] Chicago to put heels on and a leotard and learn how to walk in high heels, which was pretty humiliating, to be honest, and I’m sad about that because I think I was discovering myself as a young woman in the world and wasn’t fully formed. … I was different. I was wild, I had a lot of feeling inside me. I could hardly keep my hands beside myself and I think to kind of criticize a body of a young woman at that time and to make her feel conscious of that was lazy and, I think, boring.

On filming parts of the 2026 film The Bride! while pregnant

I really loved working when I was pregnant. I thought it was a pretty wild experience, especially because I was playing Mary Shelley and I was talking about [this] monstrosity, and here I was with two heartbeats inside me. Becoming a mom and being pregnant did something, I think, for me. My experience of it, it’s so real that it really focuses [me to be] allergic to fake or to disconnection.

Since my daughter has come and I know what that connection is and the real feeling of being in a relationship with somebody … as an actress, it’s very exciting to recognize that in yourself and really take ownership of yourself.

I’m excited to go back and work on this other side of becoming a mother in so many ways, because I’ve shed 10 layers of skin by loving more and experiencing life in such a new way with my daughter. I’m also scared to work again because it’s hard to be a mother and to work. That’s like a constant tug because I love what I do and I’m passionate and I want to continue to grow and learn and fill those spaces that are yet to be filled — and also be a mother. And I think every mother can recognize that tug.

On the possibility of bringing her daughter to travel with her as she works

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I haven’t filmed for nearly a year and I cannot wait. I’m hungry to create again. And my daughter will come with me. She’s seven months, so at the moment she can travel with us and it’s a beautiful life. And she meets all these amazing people and I have a feeling that she loves life and that’s a great thing to see in a child. And I hope that’s something that I’ve imparted to her in the short time that she’s been on this earth is that life is beautiful and great and complex and alive and there’s no part of you that needs to be less in your life. You might have to work it out, but it’s worth it.

Lauren Krenzel and Susan Nyakundi produced and edited this interview for broadcast. Bridget Bentz, Molly Seavy-Nesper and Beth Novey adapted it for the web.

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‘Evil Dead’ Star Bruce Campbell Reveals He Has Cancer

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‘Evil Dead’ Star Bruce Campbell Reveals He Has Cancer

Bruce Campbell
I’m Battling Cancer

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‘Scream 7’ takes a weak stab at continuing the franchise : Pop Culture Happy Hour

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‘Scream 7’ takes a weak stab at continuing the franchise : Pop Culture Happy Hour

Neve Campbell in Scream 7.

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The OG Scream Queen Neve Campbell returns. Scream 7 re-centers the franchise back on Sidney Prescott. She has a new life, a family, and lots of baggage. You know the drill: Someone dressing up as the masked slasher Ghostface comes for her, her family and friends. There’s lots of stabbing and murder and so many red herrings it’s practically a smorgasbord.

Follow Pop Culture Happy Hour on Letterboxd at letterboxd.com/nprpopculture

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