Pete Davidson candidly explains why he had a ‘tough' time fitting in at ‘SNL'
The comedian, 31, appeared on 'The Breakfast Club' radio show Wednesday and explained how he struggled to fit in with the rest of the cast when he joined the NBC sketch comedy series at 20 years old.
'Everyone at 'SNL' was 10, 15 years older than me,' Davidson said. 'I had a tough time… they weren't mean or anything, it's just hard to [relate].'
7 Pete Davidson on 'The Breakfast Club.'
The Breakfast Club/YouTube
'I would be like, 'hey, you guys wanna go smoke weed?' And they're like, 'we're having our first child. I'm getting married next week,' and all this stuff,' he recalled. 'It's tough to make friends.'
7 Pete Davidson hosting 'Saturday Night Live' in October 2023.
Will Heath/NBC via Getty Images
7 Pete Davidson on 'SNL.'
NBC / SNL
The Staten Island native, who was on 'SNL' from 2014 to 2022, said that he thinks his cast members thought he was just 'a loud kid wearing his whole life on his sleeve' when they met him.
The one exception, though, was Kenan Thompson, whom Davidson called his 'big bro from day one.'
7 Kyle Mooney, Alex Moffat, Kenan Thompson, Pete Davidson, and Dave Chappelle on 'SNL.'
NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images
'But you gotta remember, 'SNL,' it's competitive,' Davidson shared. 'It's not like a team sport. It's who could be the best this week and have their stuff on the show. So there is this aspect that we all respect and love each other, but at the end of the day, 'I'm trying to eat you alive. I want to be better than you.' So it's a very competitive environment.'
Davidson admitted that he was 'super unaware of anything' when he got 'SNL' — to the point that he didn't even know the show was still on at the time.
7 Pete Davidson on 'SNL.'
NBC / SNL
'I never watched it,' he said. 'I was 19, 20 years old.'
The 'Meet Cute' actor, who is expecting his first child with girlfriend Elsie Hewitt, also opened up how his eventual success on the show had a lot to do with the buzz about his romantic relationships with many famous women.
'I think I did rub people the wrong way,' he stated, 'and I think it was just annoying for the cast. I think the show as a whole loved it, because they were like, 'People are talking about SNL.''
7 Pete Davidson and his ex Ariana Grande on 'SNL.'
NBC
'I brought a lot of pop culture into the show,' Davidson explained. 'Like I made it sort of like a tabloid-y, like trendy thing, unintentionally. And also, I was embarrassed by it. Because no one — now it has started to change about it — but no one was talking about any work I was doing. They were like, 'That's the f–k stick,' and that hurt so much.'
7 Pete Davidson during an appearance on 'SNL' in Nov. 2024.
Saturday Night Live/Youtube
He added: 'I think after, like, a year or two, everyone saw how sad I was and embarrassed by it. I was never on Instagram flexing that lifestyle at all.'
However, Davidson clarified that none of his co-stars were 'outrightly mean' to him.
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