In the “Real Ones With Jon Bernthal” podcast, Pete Davidson (29) talked about his father’s death and his mental problems, among other things.
So he’s currently trying to get used to being happy: “It’s a strange thing for me to understand now because I’ve been unhappy for so long that it felt normal.” Now he has people around him who love him: “It’s a whole new thing that I never thought of. It’s strange to be happy.”
In behavioral therapy he would have learned to deal with his post-traumatic stress disorder and borderline personality. He used to cut himself or bang his head against walls to deal with awkward situations, the actor says. “If I couldn’t handle something – if someone told me something sad or something I couldn’t handle – I’d bang my head against the wall and hope I’d pass out because I didn’t want to be in the situation.”
With therapeutic help, these feelings have diminished over the years. They would now disappear after 15 to 20 minutes, he explained, adding: “I had to learn that if one little thing doesn’t go right, it doesn’t mean the whole ship sinks.”
The comedian also responded to some people’s impression that he was “the guy who keeps talking about his dead father”. Davidson’s father was a firefighter who died while on duty on 9/11 when Pete Davidson was seven years old.
“I mean, I made two jokes about my dad in about a 15-year span. To pretend to be like, ‘Have pity on me’ is bullshit and it makes me feel small and fucked up,” Davidson explained. And further: “I try to make a few little jokes about him here and there because I like to keep those memories alive. My father was a great guy. Why is that a problem? I’m defensive about that is my family.”
