Pete Davidson is holding nothing back in his interview with PAPER magazine.
When the star first burst onto the scene a few years back, he was as open as can be about basically every intimate detail of his life. From his love for marijuana to his struggles with losing his dad at a young age, the Saturday Night Live star was an open book. But then, after his wild yet short-lived relationship with Ariana Grande, the comedian just as suddenly went back to flying under the radar.
Nowadays, the 26-year-old mostly keeps to himself, save for the random paparazzi encounter.
However, as the cover star for PAPER magazine's #BreaktheInternet issue, the SNL cast member felt inclined to once again reveal some pretty big details about himself—after all, the issue is intended to #BreaktheInternet. Below are just a few of the biggest and juiciest things we learned about Pete, but be warned, some of these anecdotes are NSFW.
On The Divisiveness of His Big D--k Energy Descriptor: "Yeah. I think it's very... weird. I don't really pay attention to it. But I do know that [the gaze] is either, 'Ye-YESSS!' or 'FUCK NO!' There's no happy medium with me, which I think is really fun. It's either like, 'Oh, that guy's awesome,' or it's like, 'I hope that guy fucking falls off of a cliff.' But it's sad and it sucks. When enough people call you ugly, it definitely gets to you. For me, personally, I can't block that stuff out. That's why I had to get rid of the Internet and stuff. But you definitely have to get to a place where you're just like, 'This is how I look. Alright.' You know?"
On People Calling Him the "The Hottest Person in the World": "Right. Those people are crazy. It's all very weird. You lose either way. However you respond to that question, you lose."
On Masturbating to Leonardo DiCaprio's Movies: "Yeah! Well, I used to jerk off to Leonardo DiCaprio... Uhh, like his acting. I used to have a HUGE crush on Leonardo DiCaprio. I had this huge poster of him from The Beach in my room, and there used to be, like, 'Leo love books'... Do you remember? Like, right when Titanic came out [when I was] in like third or fourth grade, he was just like, 'teen milk.' There were love books and I had all of them. He was the coolest."
"I've met him twice and I've just shaken hands and run away fast, like—"
On What He's Like in a Relationship: "I do all that shit! My love language, when I'm in a relationship, is I treat the person I'm with like a princess. I try and go as above and beyond as possible, because that's what you're supposed to do? If you're in a relationship with someone, you're just supposed to make that person feel as special as possible. But sometimes when you put so much on someone, it overwhelms them, and then they don't know if they could come close to that. Or if they can keep up with it. So, it's very off-putting to some. Sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn't, and then it sometimes makes me feel bad about myself because I'm like, 'I did all this stuff and...'"
"Now I'm just as private as possible. I'm as discrete as can be. I know now not to do PDA. I'm a very PDA [person], though. I'm a lovey person. I love licking faces."
On the Lessons He's Learned From Past Relationships: "No expectations. Otherwise you're gonna be resentful. It's something I had to learn in a past relationship, which sucked to learn through that person, but it makes you better. I used to get really upset that this person didn't "match" my intensity or how much I show by actions, you know? I'm not really good at accepting just words, 'cause people could say shit all the time. And this person was very word-heavy, so because of how insane I am, and how untrustworthy and scared I am, I couldn't only take that... So, I had to learn that you just have to do stuff 'cause you want to do it."
"That it's nobody's business. I think when you first get in a relationship and you're on television, you don't realize that when you post a photo of you and your girlfriend, you're pretty much announcing to the world your relationship. I didn't know that because I know couples that are together that I followed that, you know, are my homies that work at Best Buy, and when they post each other's picture all the time and there are no articles written about it or they're not followed around, you forget that you have to approach it differently, which is really difficult for both [people in the relationship], because the second [the public] knows you're together, it's already against you. You're losing. Because now they know you're together, if you're not [seen together], they know something went wrong. As opposed to like... people date. People date and are friends."
On Having Cystic Acne: "Well my skin's insanely bad because I have Crohn's, so I have like no immune system. So, I get cystic acne and I have to take extra-special care of my skin so it can still look shitty. But now I'm on Accutane, so I've been told I'm gonna be a little bit of a BITCH for the next six months."
On His Love-Hate Relationship With David Spade: "I hate David Spade, but I find him funny… Can I just say that? David Spade is a disgusting human being, but he is funny... If you're 17 and up, there's a chance David Spade has DMed you. Can you write that?"
On Losing His Dad at a Young Age: "I say this all the time, but you're not supposed to learn what death is until you're in high school and that weird kid that you don't know, like, falls asleep in the car in the garage with the exhaust on or one kid ODs—that's when you're first supposed to be shocked with death and learn about it. You're not supposed to learn when you're SEVEN... That's just way too young. So I don't necessarily think I was like 'man of the house' per se, but I definitely, mentally, learned a lot quicker than others... It's another reason why I'm so affectionate, I think, because people like to be coddled or... taken care of. It's nice to know that you're safe, you know?"
"I wasn't well liked in school growing up because I was weird because I was coping—dealing with personal stuff. So, I was acting out in school, and I was made fun of a bunch. So that's why I started doing standup, because people had to listen to me. I always enjoyed comedy, but I also wanted to do it because I felt like it could get a lot off my chest. It's the best form of therapy possible."
On His Relationship With Ariana Grande: "I don't ever make public statements about relationships 'cause I just don't think it's right, you know? I usually express how I feel about anything through work. So, I hope she's well. I hope she's very happy. And that's pretty much it. And print doesn't usually age well."
Read more from Pete in the latest issue of PAPER.