Pete David son

How Pete Davidson found his voice on ‘Saturday Night Live’

Pete Davidson could have played Donald Trump on “Saturday Night Live.” In 2015, the NBC sketch show asked him — along with every other male cast member — to audition for the part of the Republican underdog, who was clearly running for president as a joke. “It was bad,” recalls Davidson on a recent walk through downtown New York. “First of all, I’m 10 pounds, so I looked insane. They made us all get dressed up and tanned up. I sounded like Thunderlips from ‘Rocky III.’” He re-creates a hissing voice reminiscent of a villain on a morning cartoon. “It was a nightmare. If I could get my hands on this tape, it’s embarrassing as fuck.”

His missed opportunity meant another job for Alec Baldwin, but Davidson doesn’t need to despair. In the last four years, the 24-year-old has steadily become one of the show’s most valuable — if sometimes underused — players. You can catch him as the straight man in skits, such as a customer in a diner who orders lobster, prompting the crustacean to beg for his survival by belting out the soundtrack to “Les Misérables.”

On the Weekend Update segments, Davidson