Pete Davidson is opening up about his first season of Saturday Night Live, after which he asked creator Lorne Michaels to fire him.
The 31-year-old actor was just 20 years old when he joined the cast, one of the youngest ever to join SNL in the show’s storied history.
He joined the show in 2014 and remained until his departure in 2022, though he revealed on the new Peacock docuseries SNL50: Beyond Saturday Night, that his tenure was almost much shorter.
The comedian revealed that he actually wanted iconic SNL creator Lorne Michaels to fire him after his first season.
‘I actually called for a meeting with Lorne and I was like, “Please fire me,” and he’s like, “Why?”‘ Davidson recalled.
‘And I was like, “I don’t belong here. Everybody’s so talented and they don’t want to be my friend,”‘ Davidson said with a laugh.
Pete Davidson is opening up about his first season of Saturday Night Live , after which he asked creator Lorne Michaels to fire him
The 31-year-old actor was just 20 years olf when he joined the cast, one of the youngest ever to join SNL in the show’s storied history
‘Because I was a child. I was like, “Nobody wants to be my friend.” And he said, “You don’t figure it out ’til your third or fourth year,”‘ Davidson added.
He added that Lorne told him, ‘It’s just gonna suck for three or four years,’ adding, ‘And he was right.’
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The comedian also watched his original audition in Studio 8H, where he said, they ‘pull the stage out, it’s blacked out because you can’t see them.’
He added it’s, ‘terrifying because there’s three people’ that are watching the audition, where a comedian has to perform for five minutes.
While watching the audition – where he was wearing a red Spider-Man t-shirt – ‘It’s wild to see the hope in one’s eye.’
Davidson added that he, ‘didn’t know whether to do impressions or stand up,’ which lead to a phone call to his friend.
‘And then I called my buddy and I was like, “Should I do impressions?” He’s like, “Can you?” I was like, “No.” He’s like, “Well then you should do stand up,”‘ the friend said.
When the audition happened, he recalled not having a great feeling and didn’t think he’d get on the show.
‘Because I was a child. I was like, “Nobody wants to be my friend.” And he said, “You don’t figure it out ’til your third or fourth year,”‘ Davidson added.
He added that Lorne told him, ‘It’s just gonna suck for three or four years,’ adding, ‘And he was right’
Though he did end up landing the gig, that feeling of uncertainty didn’t leave Davidson throughout his first season on the show
‘Two times in six minutes someone went, ‘Ha!’ and I was like, ‘That was terrible, there’s no way I’m getting it,'” he remembered thinking.
Though he did end up landing the gig, that feeling of uncertainty didn’t leave Davidson throughout his first season on the show.
Towards the end of the episode, Davidson added, ‘I grew up here. I was a kid when I came in and I’ll always be proud, I’ll always miss it.’
Davidson went on to star in the Peacock original series Bupkis and recently starred in films like Dumb Money and Transformers: Rise of the Beasts.