Pete Davidson Was in Four Movies This Year. Is He the Biggest ‘SNL’ Movie Star of His Generation?

Pete Davidson isn’t just an unlikely movie star. He’s an unlikely anything star. That’s not a knock; that’s a description of his self-aware shtick as a stand-up comedian, which got him hired for a surprisingly lengthy and, all things considered, quite successful stint on Saturday Night Live. Though the show had favored improvisors and sketch comics for much of the preceding two decades prior to his 2014 hiring, Davidson called back to the days of Adam Sandler and David Spade, when stand-up comics with a clear persona could mold comedy sketches or, more successfully, Weekend Update pieces to their strengths. Sandler may be an instructive comparison, and not just because he was clearly doing an unofficial Sandler impression in at least one sketch. Like Sandler, Davidson has rocketed (or, OK, at least inched) past several seemingly more likely co-stars to become the most in-demand movie star of his SNL era.

Granted, that doesn’t put him on equal footing with the Sandman, who was America’s reigning comedy king at the box office for about 15 to 20 years before pivoting to becoming the most successful Netflix star of the streaming era. On the other hand, let’s have a look at some of Davidson’s contemporaries: Vanessa Bayer has a scene-stealing supporting role in this week’s Freakier Friday, where current SNLer Chloe Fineman also catches some stray laughs in an even smaller part. They’re highlights of the film, but not the stars. Same goes for Beck Bennett’s hilarious bit part in Superman. Aidy Bryant and Cecily Strong pop up a lot, but haven’t starred in movies. Davidson’s biggest SNL co-star was probably Kate McKinnon, and though she’s worked steadily in movies and TV, she hasn’t had her Bridesmaids moment in cinema.

Davidson, in the meantime, has his second starring role in three weeks, with The Pickup (opposite no less than SNL’s biggest alumnus, Eddie Murphy, as well as Keke Palmer) debuting on Prime Video not long after The Home gave him an unequivocal leading role in a horror movie. Earlier this spring, he shared the screen with another SNL luminary, acting opposite Bill Murray in Riff Raff. He also did a major voice in the hit cartoon Dog Man.

Are any of these movies playing at a theater near you? Probably not! Riff Raff and The Home came and went, and The Pickup is streaming only. Davidson doesn’t have much luck with actual movie theaters. His Judd Apatow-assisted starring vehicle The King of Staten Island had been positioned as the 40-Year-Old Virgin or Trainwreck of 2020, only to have the pandemic turn it into a VOD release. It’s hard to picture that 140-minute dramedy making $100 million in theaters, but it would have gotten a substantial push. From a certain angle, Davidson looks like a COVID-casualty version of a movie star – a guy who wound up having to stay indoors, pale and sleep-deprived, during his big moment. His Happy Gilmore does not appear to be forthcoming, let alone his Waterboy.

But still! This is a guy who long seemed checked out of the sketch-making process on SNL, instead flourishing on Update or in pre-filmed pieces like his music videos. He was knocked for his narrow range on the show, and will surely be considered not quite ready for cinema. Yet he does have something; it’s not purely the gossip-pages name-recognition and skinny-white-boy factors that get him into leading roles (though there is also that). The Home barely holds together as a horror movie, too drawn-out in its set-up and didactic (if satisfyingly so) in its gonzo conclusion. But Davidson makes sense as a troubled young adult still reeling from grief who goes from reluctant old-folks-home super to somewhat earnest caregiver to one-man investigative team. What he has in this part that many of his fellow SNL folks can’t quite grasp onto is a sense of real-life turmoil; he looks haunted in a way that doesn’t necessarily come easier to more seasoned sketch performers. (Think of it as the reason that Dana Carvey never really made it as a movie star.) Even if some of that is projection of his real life – his seemingly scrappy Staten Island upbringing, losing his dad early on to the 9/11 attacks, his struggles with substance abuse – it can be used effectively on screen.

There’s less of that in play in The Pickup, more of a lightweight project by design. But alongside a low-key Murphy, Davidson is the guy who seems like he really wants to be there. The movie mostly feeds him dumb easy-layup gags about him being hapless and slobby, but he makes it easier to see the movie The Pickup might have been than Murphy, an infinitely funnier guy (not just than Davidson; than almost anyone) who nonetheless just clocks in here. Though it’s been over a decade since he debuted on SNL, Davidson still has hints of neophyte enthusiasm. (Think of it as what David Spade was never able to muster.) His film career may still remain a largely indoor affair that missed its Apatow window some years ago. But that’s worked out pretty well for Sandler, and I’d put decent odds on Davidson turning up for a Happy Madison comedy at some point. Sometimes seeming as if all of this was by accident becomes a major source of endearment.

Jesse Hassenger (@rockmarooned) is a writer living in Brooklyn. He’s a regular contributor to The A.V. Club, Polygon, and The Week, among others. He podcasts at www.sportsalcohol.com, too.