Pete Davidson, 26, has had an exciting life thus far, but it hasn’t always been easy. The comedian was promoting his new semi-autobiographical film Staten Island King, which comes out on June 12, when he gave a tell-all interview to CBS Sunday Morning, which aired on June 7. In the interview, he opened up about what he’s learned over the years during his time as a regular cast member on Saturday Night Live and revealed intimate details about when he contemplated suicide at the lowest time in his life.
“I got as close as you can get. I mean, just, like testing the waters,” he said about almost taking his own life in 2017. “And until I met the right treatments and met the right doctors and did all the work that you need to do to, like, not feel that way, it got pretty dark and scary.”
Although things were looking very down when it comes to Pete’s emotional state in 2017, luckily, he found the strength to get the help he needed and healed while making Staten Island King, which he co-wrote with Judd Apatow and Dave Sirus. “I really wanted this to be, like, cleansing for me,” he said about his process acting as the lead character in the film. “I feel like I got to speak about it in the biggest way possible, and I could get my story out there. So I feel like, now I could, like, let it go.”
Pete’s latest interview isn’t the first time we’ve heard about him hitting “rock bottom.” After posting a disturbing message about not wanting to be “on this Earth anymore” in Dec. 2018, he deleted his Instagram account and friends like Machine Gun Kelly reached out to make sure he was okay. He got on the right track once again and in Feb., he sat down with Charlamagne Tha God and discussed the low points in his life.
“I think I’ve hit it a few times,” he said about feeling at “rock bottom” in the interview. “As long as you’re around good, supportive people and if you’re strong, you can get out of it.” He also touched upon how he would cut himself as a way to cope.
“Whenever you’re so manic and upset, sometimes [cutting is] the only thing that’ll work for me,” he said. “But you go to rehab, you learn like, ‘Oh, you take a cold shower, you can work out, you can listen to music really loud … you can call a friend. You can wait five minutes.’”