Pete Davidson Reveals ‘SNL’ Fame Sparked Behind-the-Scenes Cast Tension

Pete Davidson admits that being an overnight success on Saturday Night Live came with its challenges.

The comic was just 20 when he landed a gig on the late-night comedy sketch series in 2014. He admitted during an appearance on The Breakfast Club that his sudden success appeared to rub some cast members the wrong way.

“You got to remember, everyone there did Second City, improv, worked so hard — so hard,” he explained. “I’m not saying I didn’t work hard, but I was only doing comedy for three, four years.”

He added, “And a lot of what people liked about me was, ‘Oh, this was a kid from Staten Island that’s just talking s***. So you gotta remember all of these people are 10, 15 years older than me and working so hard.”

Davidson says that while he may have rubbed some cast members the wrong way, his actions were unintentional.

“You gotta dress up to go to the afterparty and all this s***. So I think I did rub people the wrong way, and I think it was just annoying for the cast,” he concluded.

However, in his favor, Davidson believes he brought a pop culture element to the show, which, at the time, it may have lacked. He said he “unintentionally” made it “sort of a tabloid-y, trendy thing.”

The tabloid element of Davidson’s life arose after his high-profile relationships with Ariana Grande and Kim Kardashian, both which occurred when he was a cast member of the sketch comedy series.

However, he was “embarrassed” about how his personal life overshadowed the work he was doing for SNL. “That hurt so much,” he admitted.

“And I think after, like, a year or two, everyone saw how sad I was about it and embarrassed. Because I was never on Instagram flexing that lifestyle at all.”

He concluded, “ So I think after a while, they understood it. But at first they were like, ‘This kid’s just a loud — this has nothing to do with SNL.”

Davidson currently stars in The Pickup, streaming on Amazon Prime.