Pete Davidson Met Leonardo DiCaprio Seconds Before Going Onstage at SNL 40 — and the Oscar Winner Was a Fan!

Davidson remembered the 40th anniversary show as the “most anxiety-provoking” experience — and DiCaprio’s surprise compliment definitely didn’t help

Pete Davidson; Leonardo DiCaprio. 

Pete Davidson already had some nerves going into Saturday Night Live‘s 40th anniversary show — and then, Leonardo DiCaprio raised the stakes.

As the 50th anniversary of the late-night sketch comedy show approaches, the comedian, 31, reflected on the last major anniversary show, which took place in 2015, during an appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.

“That was my first year and it was fun for me because no one knew [me] — I was a new guy, so no one knew who I was.

They thought, you know, whatever, I was just backstage,” Davidson recalled.

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He was actually “able to enjoy it,” he said, because he felt somewhat anonymous during what he called “the most anxiety-provoking” show of all.

“Like, what you guys don’t know is the audience is, like, Jack Nicholson, Taylor Swift — it’s not a normal audience.

So you’re like dressed like a potato ….

and then Jack Nicholson’s just sitting there.”

Pete Davidson walks the red carpet at the SNL 40th Anniversary Special at 30 Rockefeller Plaza on February 15, 2015.

When Jimmy Fallon described the anniversary shows as “bizarre,” Davidson agreed and shared a particularly memorable part of the 2015 special episode.

“I only had one job. Me and Leslie Jones — the great Leslie Jones — we were gonna introduce a category or whatever,” he recalled.

When he and Jones got a 5-second countdown to their segment, “Leonardo DiCaprio tugged my shirt.

nd he had his big Revenant beard,” Davidson said.

“And he just went, ‘I like what you’re doing.’”

Immediately after receiving the compliment, Davidson and Jones were given their cue and cameras picked up — which added to how surreal the moment was for the Bupkis star.

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Leonardo DiCaprio attends the AFI Awards at Four Seasons Hotel Los Angeles at Beverly Hills on January 12, 2024.

Fallon and Davidson are not the only ones in a reflective mood as SNL‘s 50th anniversary special approaches.

Jones, 57, recalled being “cocky as f—” during her audition for the show in 2014. “I walked in there, I was like, ‘Y’all in the back, move to the front. I don’t perform like that.’ And then when I finished I was like, ‘My name is Leslie Jones. Peace.’”

Meyers, 51, remembered it clearly. “I would’ve told you nobody laughs at auditions because nobody laughed at mine, but I was there for Leslie’s,” he said.

Saturday Night Live‘s 50th anniversary special airs Sunday, Feb. 16 at 8 p.m. ET on NBC.