Pete Davidson wants to be taken seriously, and his new movie gave him a reason to try. In ‘How to Rob a Bank,’ the comedian and former ‘Saturday Night Live’ cast member plays a war veteran and father facing lung cancer who joins a crew of masked robbers that livestreams its heists. Davidson said the cast made the choice easy. ‘This is not a cool thing to say, but I saw David Leitch, Nick Hoult, Zoe Kravitz, and John C. Reilly were all attached, and I just said yes,’ he told Interview magazine in a talk with radio host Charlamagne tha God published Sept. 14.
The film’s premise struck him as a gamble. ‘Whoa, this is pretty intense social commentary,’ Davidson said. ‘I think that’s a very tricky thing to do right now.’ He said he understood his character’s choices, including the criminal ones. ‘I definitely would do the same thing for my family,’ Davidson said. ‘I didn’t feel like my character was doing anything wrong.’ The role trades his usual comic register for a man out of options.
Davidson framed the part as an answer to years of low expectations. ‘I feel like I’ve been super underestimated my entire career, even though staying relevant for over a decade is no easy feat,’ he said. He has built much of that career on stand-up and quick comic bits. ‘I’ve spent a lot of time being life or death on dick jokes,’ he said. ‘Like, I will die on this hill.’ The drama, he suggested, lets him show a different gear.
Fatherhood has reordered his priorities. ‘Having my daughter is the best thing that’s ever happened to me for a billion reasons,’ Davidson said. He has also made an uneasy peace with a level of public exposure few actors face. ‘I don’t have that luxury because everyone knows everything about me,’ he said, contrasting his own life with performers who manage to guard their privacy.
‘How to Rob a Bank’ surrounds Davidson with the names that drew him to the script, among them David Leitch, Nicholas Hoult, Zoe Kravitz and John C. Reilly. Charlamagne, who has interviewed him before, pressed Davidson on whether the drama signals a lasting change in the kind of work he chases. Davidson said he wants his range recognized and is ready to argue the case himself, on the theory that a decade in the business should count for something.
