For someone whose public life has been endlessly torn apart by the short-term memory vultures of celebrity media, Pete Davidson certainly uses his own life and likeness a lot for his art. However, his own quasi-autobiographical art feels very different from the gossip coverage of his life.
Far from the lurid melodrama, Kardashians, pop singers, public feuds and miniature apocalypse depicted in the gossip, Davidson’s own creative self-image is decidedly low-key. It’s a guy who lives with his mom, googles himself, and stumbles into thirty without much confidence. This is usually the Davidson we get into Bupkisa different view of his personal life after his fragile return The King of Staten Island.
met Davidson Judah Miller while making that aforementioned Judd Apatow movie; Miller was a producer on The King of Staten Island, and found himself in Davidson’s orbit, with a sense of humor and a similar artistic vision. The two have now teamed up (with writer Dave Sirus) on the new Peacock series, Bupkis, a funny, unconventional, unpredictable and often surprisingly moving comedy about Davidson’s life. Miller spoke to MovieWeb about Davidson’s universal themes Bupkisand its amazing cast.
Developing the ruthless Bupkis
“Pete and I became friends right away, because we have very similar comic book sensibilities, and we just got close working on that movie together,” Miller said of The King of Staten Island. “And then we kept in touch. It was really, during the height of the pandemic, that Pete reached out to me and said, ‘Do you want to write a show with me and Dave? [Sirus],’ and of course I was like.” Miller continued:
We immediately started making and writing this show in a vacuum, which I think contributed to the kind of boundless and almost whimsical shifting tone. We wanted to develop something that had no rules and no limits to what the show could do. It was really just what made us laugh the hardest, or feel the most, that guided us.
“We wanted something brutal,” Miller continued. “That was a word we used a lot when we were developing the pilot. I think we came up with a pilot that is very brutal in nature, but we wanted it to have a warmth and sincerity that we’re there not even sure we’d be able to leave at the end of the pilot i think we were able to, and then take where we start and then let it go in unexpected directions i think that’s what led us to to something much warmer, more family-oriented, more emotional and dramatic in a way that people might not expect.”
Judah Miller on Bupkis’ Immaculate Cast
The emotional warmth of Bupkis is certainly unexpected, along with the sometimes surreal narrative and tone shifts. Much of the emotional success of the show can be attributed to the excellence of the cast. Edie Falcon is great as Davidson’s mother; Bobby Cannavale is great as his uncle; Joe Pesci is an unmitigated revelation, a ray of brilliance reflected from every scene he’s in.
Add the incredible guest stars from Bupkis (Ray Romano, Brad Garrett, Charlie Day, Kenan Thompson, Sebastian Stan, Steve Buscemi, Method Man, Jon Stewart, Al Gore, Cam’ron, JJ Abrams, Paul Walter Hauser, Jane Curtin, Machine Gun Kelly, Jordan Rock, Chris O’Donnell, John Mulaney, Simon Rex, Dave Attell, Nathan Fillion, Kevin Corrigan) and you’ve put together one of the best casts ever. Star power and self-indulgence aside, though, it makes sense to include these big names Bupkis. After all, Davidson’s daily life includes basketball games with Jon Stewart and encounters with Steve Buscemi.
“There’s no exaggeration there,” Miller explained. “I mean, Pete knows Al Gore. He’s spoken in real life at summits about climate change. Yeah, it’s like an embarrassment of wealth in terms of talent that we’ve been able to put on this show.” Miller elaborated:
I think in some ways this show is a collection of a lot of Pete’s favorite things. He’s a big fan of Everyone loves Raymond, so we have Ray Romano in a way we’ve never seen Ray Romano before. We have Brad Garrett. It’s a collection of people who are really part of his life, and then people who are associated with things that Pete and I and Dave are big fans of – Edie Falco, Joe Pesci. I think people who watch the show will be able to see that all of Pete’s favorite things somehow came together in one project.
The Evolution and Universality of Pete Davidson
So if Bupkis is about Davidson’s life, and it features many of the “Pete’s favorite things,” and it’s an accurate look at the mundanity of fame and celebrity, what’s in the series for the casual viewer? Is there anything left Bupkis that transcends Davidson’s specifics and achieves the universality of the human condition? Miller thinks so, and thinks a lot of it has to do with family and human connections.
“There’s so much about this show that isn’t really focused on career and success or fame in show business,” Miller explains. “That’s an aspect that influences some of the stories we tell, but this is a portrait of a family that’s not functioning properly. As all families do. Their family loves each other deeply, but he struggles to connect. make it, and I think the audience will take root.” for these characters to work through their obstacles and connect with each other in a way that hopefully, I think, is very relatable to all people, no matter what course of life you come from.
The focus on childlike connection is made so beautifully clear by the incredible performances of everyone in Davidson’s fictional family (including Davidson himself, who has become a really good actor despite being underrated and somewhat pigeonholed). Additionally, Bupkis is just plain funny, though the humor is rarely straightforward. Much of the humor is rooted in Davidson’s self-destruction, a critical part of his comedy; that is why his art is so often autobiographical.
“It’s interesting because as an artist he’s very fearless,” Miller said. “He’s an artist who’s very open and unfiltered in his comedy. So I think it’s very natural for him to explore real aspects and intimate aspects of his life. Having said that, I think one of the things that’s incredibly is, him in projects like The King of Staten Island And Bupkis, is that he’s such an incredible actor.” Miller continued:
To see where he can go dramatically is just amazing to me. And I think for Pete, there are no limits to what he can do in terms of performance, whether it’s portraying an aspect of his actual self or portraying a character. But it was really the absurd and relentlessly escalating aspect of Pete’s real life that made us want to develop this. We saw a lot of opportunities to mine comedy there, because when you’re in Pete’s job, you often end up in ridiculous situations.
Judah Miller invites you to step into Pete Davidson’s job Bupkis. It may be ridiculous, but it’s ridiculously good. All eight episodes of Bupkis will premiere on Peacock on Thursday, May 4, 2023.