Stars from TV’s buzziest shows like “Empire,” “Silicon Valley,” “Transparent,” “American Crime,” and “Jane the Virgin” flocked to TheWrap’s 2015 Emmy party at the London Hotel in West Hollywood on Thursday night.
With Major Lazer’s worldwide No. 1 hit “Lean On” playing in the rooftop space with its sunset view of Sunset Boulevard, a slew of Hollywood figures like “Scarface” star Steven Bauer, “Justified” actress Kaitlyn Dever and Titus Welliver (forever the Man in Black from “Lost” but now leading Amazon’s “Bosch”) sized up this year’s Emmy race over cocktails.
The guest list included Oscar winners like “American Crime” creator John Ridley, “Tyrant” composer Mychael Danna, previous Emmy winners like “Modern Family” creator Chris Lloyd and “The Amazing Race” executive producer Bertram van Munster.
They even joked about who they would like to “kneecap” to eliminate as their acting competition (more on this below).
For Thomas Middleditch and Kumail Nanjiani of HBO’s “Silicon Valley,” it is their second time through the Emmy campaign gauntlet. They skipped the carpet to head right for the roof, where Zach Woods soon joined them.
They have already been campaigning this season with photo shoots and videos, and their castmate T.J. Miller is an early winner. He beat out Tony Hale (“Veep”), Adam Driver (“Girls”), and “Jane the Virgin” star Jaime Camil at the TV Critics Choice Awards earlier this month.
On Thursday, Camil said he gets an extended summer vacation this year since the CW breakout will not go back in to production until Aug. 20.
Lead Gina Rodriguez is off shooting “Deepwater Horizon” with Mark Wahlberg and director Peter Berg. Camil, plans to spend some of his extra down time means in his native Mexico, while his wife Heidi Balvanera promotes her book, “Crónicas de una mamá novata.”
For others, the night drew actors at different points in their production cycles.
“You’re the Worst” castmates Kether Donohue and Desmin Borges are already shooting the sixth episode of their FX comedy’s next season. Their co-star Aya Cash had to skip the party since she was still on set until 1 a.m. No vegetable samosas or Svedka vodka for her.
Mircea Monroe, the perennially young star of “Episodes,” was entitled to lots of champagne: Showtime just announced that her Hollywood satire with Matt LeBlanc is getting picked up for a fifth season.
“Empire’s” Kaitlin Doubleday hung with “Survivor’s Remorse” star Erica Ash, who was excited to see Stephen Bishop from “Being Mary Jane.” “We had our Emmy consideration screening the other night, so fingers crossed,” Bishop said. “It’s good to be able to be in a room like this.”
For any actor, there were multiple potential employers and colloborators it would be good to be near.
In showrunner land, Chris Lloyd of perennial Emmy champ “Modern Family” hung by the screens flashing pictures of previous Wrap bashes. In addition to the “You’re the Worst” crew, the FX delegation was strong with Ben Wexler, executive producer of the Billy Crystal and Josh Gad two-hander “The Comedians.”
Nearby, “The Amazing Race” creator, director, and showrunner Bertram Van Munster sipped a Heineken Light. It was a loyal beverage choice for the globe-trotter, as his last season featured a key challenge in Amsterdam boating through the canals, home of the green bottles.
He did not know about CBS’ show “Survivor’s” recent huge stunt, a 10 million-plus public cast vote-on, but said he is open to the gimmick for future seasons of his shows and said a change in format for the “Race” is coming.
“American Crime” writer-director John Ridley picked up TheWrap’s Emmy magazine, while HBO “Ballers” star Donovan Carter went home with a different gift — a bottle of Freixenet plucked from a tower display. (Full disclosure: I started the movement to loot the tower of champagne as impromptu party favors.)
Carter couldn’t be more pleased that his show, which stars Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, landed the coveted HBO real estate between the premiere of “True Detective” season two and the premiere of the Jack Black/Tim Robbins comedy “The Brink.” “It’s a blessing, a blessing,” he said.
Carter’s previous work was just a few miles down Sunset Boulevard to the west, on the UCLA practice fields where he played football for five years.
Syfy’s upcoming space opera “The Expanse,” the biggest show the network has ever done, won’t qualify for this year’s Emmys, but Comic-Con plans were already on the mind for star Cas Anvar. He jokingly accepted my hypothetical offer to kneecap two actors who vie for his roles: Better look out, Naveen Andrews (an Anvar pal) and Cliff Curtis (“Fear the Walking Dead”).
TheWrap made room for media friends like “Entertainment Tonight” supervising producer Joe Siyam, “Access Hollywood” publicist Niki Kazakos , “The Talk” recurring guest Diana Madison as well as “Extra TV’s” red carpet squad.
In addition to the throng of TV faces on the rooftop, Thursday brought together a rare alignment of industry publicity heavyweights, with both Allison Jackson and Katy Sweet tag-teaming the event. Freixenet Spanish Cava, Heineken Light, Lorimar Vineyards and Winery and Svedka (who have their own bash next week) provided the pours.
As the party wound down, word began circulating that Netflix had sneakily released “Orange Is the New Black” several hours early.
TheWrap heads to New York City for its next big shindig. Helen Mirren will headline TheWrap’s Power Women Breakfast on Tuesday, June 16.