This week brings the Netflix debut of Pete Davidson's Alive From New York special, which effectively kicks off what is set to be an extremely prolific 2020 for the comedian.
Ahead of the Feb. 25 drop, Davidson sat down with Charlamagne tha God for an extended interview touching on his patient film role selection process, Big Time Adolescence, The King of Staten Island, and more. Davidson and Charlemagne also spent portions of the interview addressing past relationships.
"I think you grow a lot as a person. I've learned a lot from the awesome chicks that I've been with, and they're all cool," Davidson said around the 3:30 mark. " So I think you just grow, you become a better version of yourself, because you learn a little something from everybody."
His former relationship with Ariana Grande was then specifically mentioned, with Charlamagne asking whether anything is "off-limits" in his work.
"I think genuinely being hurtful is off-limits or anything like being shitty or anything," he said. "I wanna be cool with everybody but, you know, stand-up's part of my life. That was a highly publicized thing. I feel like she got her fair run and her fair stab at it, and like I said, I don't have social media and I don't have an outlet really to express my feelings so stand-up's just how i do it."
Davidson also said that he plans on staying single for a while. "What can I say? I love love, but I'm pretty done with that," he said. "I'm going to try and stay away from that. It's just a lot..."
Later, around the 25-minute mark, Davidson briefly addressed the 2018 death of Mac Miller, expressing support for Grande during what he remembered as a "really horrible" time.
"I think I said, like, 'I'll be here until you don't want me to be here,'" he recalled. "I pretty much knew it was over around after that. That was really horrible and I can't imagine what that shit is like. That shit is just terrible. All I do know is that she really loved the shit out of him and she wasn't putting on a show or anything. That was fucked up and prayers to his family and all of his friends, still."
Elsewhere, Davidson spoke with refreshing candor about the importance of destigmatizing rehab and the topic of mental health at large. He also praised Big Time Adolescence writer/director Jason Orley, lamented Adam Sandler's Uncut Gems Oscars robbery, and his intention to one day have a child. "I got to be in love and stuff, but I'm at the point where I'm like maybe I should adopt or something," he said. "I think everybody's afraid of the Davidson seed."
Pete also took aim at the downfall of Louis CK, whom he previously called out publicly by claiming the CK tried to get him fired from SNL. In addition to him admitting that he's still mad about that, Davidson claimed that the older comic is just "not a nice guy." He says that characterization is backed up by the lack of support CK got after sexual misconduct claims were made public against him. You can find those comments shortly after the 26-minute mark.
And as for his status with Saturday Night Live, Davidson suggested he feels he's outgrown it, though he's willing to stick around for the time being. "I feel like, yeah, I've done as much as I can over there but [I'm] happy to be there as long as Lorne likes me," he said around 35 minutes into the interview, which can be viewed in full at the top of this page.
Big Time Adolescence, which saw Davidson earning the highest critical acclaim of his career, is out March 13 in select theaters and will hit Hulu one week later.
