Is Pete Davidson ready to leave Saturday Night Live?
The 27-year-old comedian, who has been on the show since 2014, opened up about a potential departure in a new roundtable interview published by The Hollywood Reporter on Thursday. When asked if he has plans to stay on the show for 18 seasons, like his co-star, Kenan Thompson, Davidson replied, “Yeah, I’m good.”
“I’m surprised I made it to seven,” Davidson admitted. “I’m ready to hang up the jersey. Kenan’s like f**kin’ Karl Malone out there.”
“You get to see a lot of people at SNL, and there’s this aura around Eddie Murphy where you’re just like, ‘Holy sh*t, that’s Eddie Murphy.’ [Adam] Sandler is like that, too. You just can’t believe you’re seeing him in person,” he continued. “I’d like the Eddie Murphy, Sandler career. I like what Sandler did where he’s like, ‘These are my eight friends, we’re going to do this formula for the next 30 to 50 years.’ He built this entire universe for himself, and he’s in his own lane. That’s the model.”
Davidson added that the way Sandler “carries himself” is also something he admires.
“He’s so kind to everyone, and you never hear of a Sandler issue — there’s never, like, a Sandler-gate,” he explained. “Any time you see that guy’s face, it’s associated with smiles and good vibes. That’s the thing I’m trying to follow.”
The new interview comes just days after Davidson seemingly hinted at a goodbye during SNL’s latest Weekend Update. Speaking to Colin Jost about the coronavirus pandemic, Davidson said, “You wouldn’t know this because your life’s perfect, but it’s Mental Health Awareness Month, and my therapist said it’s important to practice self-care.”
“If there’s one good thing about the pandemic, besides getting Chrissy Teigen out of our lives, it’s that I was actually excited when I found out we had to wear masks,” he joked. “This sounds crappy to say, but I figured less people would recognize me. But it didn’t work because everyone can still recognize me from my eyes.”
“I was already so anxious before the pandemic, you know, my brain didn’t have room for something new to panic about. Like, I can’t start being afraid public restrooms will give me COVID-19, when I was already afraid they would give me AIDS,” he added, to which Jost brought up the fact that you can’t get AIDS from a toilet. “Hey, AIDS is a lot like SNL. It’s still here, it’s just no one has gotten excited about it since the ’90s. Lorne [Michaels] actually wrote that. That was his joke.”
Davidson continued on, saying that the pandemic has taught him that “we never really know what the future holds.”
“It’s also taught me to be grateful,” he shared. “I’m very grateful to be here and it’s been an honor to grow up in front of you guys. So thanks.”
Davidson also opened up about his future at SNL in an interview with ET last June. “I will be there as long as they allow me to be,” he said at the time. “I think I’m very lucky to be on that show and I’m really lucky to have Lorne Michaels as, you know, not only a mentor and a boss, but a friend. I’ll be there as long as they allow it.”
