Pete Davidson details talking with Eminem after 'SNL' impersonation: 'I just hung up as quick as possible'

By Megan Armstrong | Last updated 5/5/21

Pete Davidson has made a name for himself since joining Saturday Night Live as one of its youngest-ever cast members in 2014, but this season, the now-27-year-old has disappeared a few times into an Eminem impersonation.

The real Slim Shady took note and called Davidson, who recounted their conversation on Tuesday's Late Night with Seth Meyers (3:15-mark):

Davidson said:

"It went I think as good as it could go. Those [sketches] were written by the great Dan Bulla and Steven Castillo, great SNL writers—and [Chris] Redd. Eminem said a couple nice things about me, and I, of course, heard them. I reached out, I was like, 'I would just like to say thank you.' And I just hit him up and said 'thanks' and he was like, 'Yeah man, you really did that.' He was like, 'When I saw Stu on script, I was like, I don’t know how it was going to go, but after you did that, it was fire.' I was like, 'Oh thank you so much. You're the coolest,' and then I just hung up as quick as possible. That’s all you need. You don’t want anything more."

Meyers agreed with Davidson's strategy, saying, "When you talk to a hero, you don't want to extend it; if you're good, get out."

The King of Staten Island star was referring to December's "Stu" sketch centered around Santa Claus (Jason Bateman) getting inundated by letters from a man named Stu (Davidson) based on Eminem's 2000 track "Stan."

Davidson more recently embodied the 15-time Grammy-winning rapper for the "NFTs" sketch during March 27's episode featuring Maya Rudolph as host and Jack Harlow as musical guest—this time taking from iconic 2002 smash "Without Me":

Outside of SNL, Davidson will appear in James Gunn's The Suicide Squad this August and has a forthcoming role in The Things They Carried. His casting as Joey Ramone in a Netflix biopic was announced April 15.

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