Pete Davidson wasn’t a fan of the media attention he received during the early years of his career. During an appearance on The Breakfast Club on Wednesday, Davidson reflected on how he was perceived by the public and how it impacted his work on Saturday Night Live.
Davidson explained that being a tabloid fixture during his high-profile relationship with ex-fiancée Ariana Grande was often humiliating for him. “I brought a lot of pop culture into the show,” he said. “I made it [a] sort of tabloidly, trendy thing, unintentionally. And, also I was embarrassed by it because—now it’s starting to change a little bit—but no one talked about any work I was doing. They were just like, ‘Oh, that’s the fuck stick.’ And that hurt so much.”
The actor said that after a year or two of this going on “everyone saw how sad I was about it and embarrassed.” “I was never on Instagram, you know, flexing that sort of lifestyle at all,” he said. “I was very embarrassed by it. So I think after a while they understood… But I just want to be clear, no one was outrightly mean by any means.”
Host Charlamagne Tha God asked, “What were you embarrassed by though? You was banging a lot of hot chicks and people knew you had a 10-inch penis.”
“You know, on paper, that sounds great,” Davidson replied. “But it’s embarrassing. Because first of all, it’s Hollywood. Everybody fucks everyone. 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 and is a drug addict.”
He added, “Also, that stuff affects relationships. Seeing that and trying to move around and go on dates and just be a young dude who’s trying to figure out who he is—I don’t want to victimize myself in any way because I’m cool. But the sexualization of me—if that was a girl, people would be like, there would be a march for it. Seriously. You’re just talking about my dick all day… They don’t talk about girls like that professionally.”
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The host asked how the rumor about Davidson’s “big dick energy” got started. “I think it was like the New York Times or something when I started dating someone that I guess they considered out of my league, which I think everyone is out of my league,” he replied. “They were like, ‘This guy must have big dick energy.’ And then someone confirmed it.”
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Davidson said it was exhausting having his relationships be so public. “I got really tired of my whole career just being my personal life,” he said. “And living through that is sort of traumatic. Not to be like lame, but it’s traumatic to live in your own crap all the time.”
Davidson is currently starring in two movies, thriller The Home and heist action comedy The Pickup, which also features Eddie Murphy and Keke Palmer. The comedian and actor recently announced that he’s expecting a baby with Elsie Hewitt. He told Jimmy Fallon on The Tonight Show, “For anybody who knows me it’s my dream to be a dad, so I’m so excited. Elsie’s excited. I’m excited to see her be a mom. So we’re stoked.”
