NEED TO KNOW
Pete Davidson gave his all while filming his new horror movie The Room. In fact, he was so dedicated to the project he risked causing permanent damage to his eye.
During a Tuesday, July 22, appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, the Saturday Night Live alum, 31, opened up about filming one particular scene for the film, which entailed his eye being held open while a needle was held above it.
When asked about filming it, Davidson confirmed that it was actually his eye. However, he said he was surprised to learn that the scene wasn’t going to be digitally edited.
“Obviously, I read the script and was just like, ‘That won’t be my eye. This is the movies. It’ll be a CGI eye,’ ” Davidson recalled, adding, “You can bring people back from the dead and put them in a movie. That’s not my eye.”
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When he got to set on the day that he was supposed to film the scene, the comedian wasn’t expecting to see a team of three doctors assembled and looking “a little concerned.”
“I’m like, ‘What’s going on?’ And my buddy James [DeMonaco], who directed it, he’s like, ‘Yeah, well. They’re here for your eye.’ And I was like, ‘What do you mean?’ He goes, ‘Well, you know, today’s that scene.’ I go, ‘I know, but what do you mean?’ He’s like, ‘Well, it’s going to be your eye.’ He goes, ‘You have very recognizable eyes.’ I go, ‘What the hell are you talking about? No I don’t. My eyes are normal, sir.’ ”
Davidson tried to argue that no one would expect it to be his eye in the scene, but he was unsuccessful in convincing the director and found his eye being held open in a manner he compared to A Clockwork Orange.
“They open my eye or whatever, and it’s all… It’s all jacked up. And there’s these three doctors on the side, and then this actor was messing up his lines. And I was like, ‘Come on, dude,’ ” he said, joking that he was fighting the urge to blink.
As they were filming, Davidson heard a doctor tell the director, “Yeah, about 30 more seconds, there’s going to be some real damage.”
“So I take the thing off. I’m like, you know, squirting it with water and stuff, I’m like, ‘What the hell just happened?’ Then we’re watching it in video village, and the director goes, ‘Yeah, it didn’t have to be your eyes.’ I was like, ‘Dude…’ ”
Davidson added that he wanted the director to tell him that his “eye did great.”
“Apparently, I will do anything for scale,” he joked.
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As for the premise of the movie, Davidson explained that he plays a character named Max who is “having a tough time in life.”
“Rather than go to jail, he goes and gets community service at this old folks home, and then chaos ensues,” he said, adding, “There’s actually some sick s— in this.”
The opportunity to do “just a straight horror movie” was exciting to him, saying, “I had a really good time, and it was just weird. It’s a weird one.”
The Home is out now.
