Morning routine: Margaret Colin

Margaret Colin plays Eleanor Waldorf on “Gossip Girl” and stars in the Off-Broadway show “Love, Loss, and What I Wore” through Sunday.

Are you a morning person? If I slept the night before, then yes — I love the mornings. Home and up early is nice, and the morning light is gorgeous. But up at 5 a.m. to go to the “Gossip Girl” set – oh, that’s hard, just hard. It’s all about cold compresses on my face to de-puff. Are you getting the picture?

What’s the first thing you do when you wake up? Thank God for another morning. Stretch like a cat. See how that goes, then move the dog Leo off my feet and put him outside. Then bother the men in my house and get that water boiling for coffee or tea.

Which do you prefer? Apparently green tea fixes everything, maybe even global warming, so that is a pretty new favorite. With milk. But 15 years ago I was only coffee in the morning, and as strong as you could get it.

What’s your typical breakfast? No typical breakfast, but hot coffee or tea is a must. And that healthy standby of egg whites and spinach with some herbs is what I order at work. But I love hot bread with melting butter, so of course I do not have it.