Comedy legend Ben Stiller has some thoughts about potential comedy legend in the making Pete Davidson.
“Pete is having a moment in time right now. He’s an incredibly sweet guy,” Stiller said Wednesday on SiriusXM’s “The Howard Stern Show.”
“He’s so personable,” the “Meet the Parents” star, 56, continued. “He’s got such a charisma. He’s funny, he’s really funny, but he has become really, really famous, I think, for —”
“Dating!” Stern interjected.
Stiller is friendly with the “Saturday Night Live” star, 28, who has become almost as known for his romantic exploits as he has for his comedy. The comedians are friendly and were recently spotted at a New York Knicks game with Jon Stewart.
Davidson, who recently returned to Instagram briefly before deactivating his account again, has previously been engaged to Ariana Grande and has been linked to Kim Kardashian West in more recent months. Stiller thinks Davidson’s personal life shouldn’t take away from the fact that he’s serious about being funny by making his own life the subject of his jokes, which he sometimes shares on “SNL.”
“I get the sense that he’s a guy who really loves to work, (who) cares about his work,” Stiller said. “I think that’s how he’s going to be known. He’s got a lot of great work ahead of him, too.
“But he’s really funny on the show, too. To be able to go on ‘Weekend Update’ and do what he does, he’s doing him, right? It’s not that easy to just be that funny and interesting and likable to do that. Come on, do a character, do a thing, but he’s really taking his life, and he’s turning it into material.”
Stern wanted to know if Davidson, whose star is so big that he appeared in a Super Bowl commercial, could do that because his life has become so known to the public.
“I think that’s why he became popular,” Stiller said. “I think that’s why people were attracted to watching him on the show, and he just has a real charm about him. I think he really wants to act, and he’s making movies and taking roles on that are real acting roles.”
While his life may have made for good fodder, Davidson is not always so happy.
“I’m always depressed, all the time. I have to constantly bring myself out of it,” he told Charlamagne tha God in a 2020 YouTube interview. “I wake up depressed, but now I know my steps. I have to go outside and be in sun for a little bit, or go for a walk. It’s all just programming yourself to trick your brain.”
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