Pete Davidson is opening up about his early rise in pop culture.
During a Wednesday interview with “The Breakfast Club,” Davidson, 31, reflected on how, early in his career on “Saturday Night Live,” people seemed more interested in his personal life than professional accolades.
“I brought a lot of pop culture into the show, like I made it sort of a tabloidly, trendy thing, unintentionally,” he said of his time on “SNL,” which he joined in 2014 at 20 years old.
He admitted that while his name was often in headlines, it wasn’t for the reasons he’d hoped for — a fact he was “embarrassed” by.
“I was embarrassed by it because ... no one talked about any work I was doing,” Davidson revealed. “They were just like, ‘Oh, that’s the fuck stick.’ And that hurt so much.”
According to Davidson, he endured this for about “a year or two” before his colleagues noticed how “sad” it made him. Still, he clarified that “no one was outrightly mean” to him on the cast.
Charlamagne tha God interjected with his confusion on Davidson’s embarrassment.
“What were you embarrassed by?” the comedian asked. “You was banging a lot of hot chicks and people knew you had a 10-inch penis.”
With a laugh on his face, Davidson swiftly responded, “You know, on paper, that sounds great.”
He explained that he was initially unsure why he was attracting so much attention, until he realized it was partly people’s opinion on his looks and how that clashed with the fact that he was dating women like Ariana Grande and Kim Kardashian.
“It’s embarrassing because, first of all, it’s Hollywood. Everybody fucks everyone,” Davidson said. “Everybody’s dating everybody. Why are they focusing on me? It’s because I’m not Glen Powell handsome. I’m just this dude that tells dick jokes that is a drug addict.”
“And it had nothing to do with comedy. Also that stuff affects relationships,” he said.
Still, he was quick to add that he doesn’t see himself as a victim, but pointed out the double standard in how he was treated.
“The sexualization of me … like, if that was a girl, people would be like — there would be a march for it ... Seriously,” he said. “You’re just talking about my dick all day?”
Davidson, who is expecting a child with girlfriend Elsie Hewitt, then talked about the term “big dick energy” being attached to his name, something he recalled The New York Times starting. (Technically, it was Twitter, which New York magazine reported on in 2018.)
“Once I got sober … and I looked at it from the cheap seats, I have not capitalized on people talking about my dick for over a decade. I should make some money off of this,” Davidson said.