Pete Davidson recently became a father, when his partner Elsie Hewitt gave birth to a baby girl in December 2025, and already it’s obvious how serious he takes his role. Undoubtedly at least some of that has to be because he grew up without his father, Scott Davidson, a New York firefighter who died in the 9/11 attacks at 33 years old. The Saturday Night Live alum got candid about his father’s heroic sacrifice and the bittersweet realization that came with it.
Comedy has clearly been a coping mechanism for Pete Davidson’s grief over the years, because anyone who’s seen him do standup or a Comedy Central Roast has likely heard the jokes he’s made about Scott Davidson’s 2001 death. However, he kept it serious when talking to Michael Gandolfini — whose father James Gandolfini died in 2013 at 51 — during an interview on The Pete Davidson Show (available with a Netflix subscription). Davidson said:
I have this unbelievable — ‘I’ll never top that.’ Like, ‘You died in the most heroic way possible. You’re cemented as like a hero.’ So I have this unbelievable chip on my shoulder, where I’m just like, ‘No matter what I fucking do, it’ll never be there.'
That is some really heavy stuff. He has such pride in the way his father lived and died, but at the same time, Scott Davidson set an impossible bar for Pete to reach.
Article continues belowLosing his father at just 7 years old, the Bodies Bodies Bodies actor also said he struggles with the legend of his dad versus the man Scott really was, which Michael Gandolfini very much could relate to with his own father.
At the time, Pete Davidson said he couldn’t quite grasp the permanence of death, saying:
I still thought my dad was, like, alive for two years… Not that he was alive, but I was just like, ‘He’ll come back.' Because that was my first, like, learning of death. But I have this unbelievable – I almost fantasize of like, what he actually was. Where I’m like, ‘Well, he’s a hero. He’s fucking this and this.’ And I don’t know if I’ve created this person in my head or if that was what he was actually like.
Michael Gandolfini talked about the memories fading day by day, forgetting his dad’s hands and other details. As heartbreaking as these realizations are, I’m sure there’s something to be gained in having someone relate to what they’ve been through — not to mention those watching the Netflix podcast who have also lost parents.
Pete Davidson named his daughter Scottie Rose in tribute to his father (well, that and as a nod to where she was conceived, apparently), but that’s not the only thing he hopes she gets from him. Scott Davidson had an aura, Pete said, that made people instantly like him and feel comfortable around him — you know, like Jon Bernthal.
Pete Davidson and Elsie Hewitt may be having issues as they adjust to new parenthood (honestly, who doesn’t?), but it’s clear how much love they have for their daughter. In my book, that's the only hero Davidson needs to be.
