Pete Davidson says Stallone inspired him to fight for Tommy Karate lead

Pete Davidson has revealed that Sylvester Stallone inspired him to fight for the starring role in his upcoming movie Tommy Karate.

The former Saturday Night Live comedian wrote the screenplay during his stint in rehab in 2023.

Directed by Justin Chon, it follows the story of Thomas Pitera, aka Tommy Karate, a real-life hit man for New York's Bonanno crime family and stars Davidson in the lead role, alongside Paul Walter Hauser, Camila Mendes, Simon Rex and Gina Gershon.

Davidson spent years shopping the script around and felt nobody wanted him for the lead role, so he considered letting someone else have it - until a Zoom call with Stallone changed his mind.

"He said something that really f**ked me up," Davidson recalled in an interview with Variety. "He goes, 'I've seen some of your work. I think you could be a really good actor, but no one's ever going to write a part for you that's good. You have to write it yourself, and you have to take it.' I was like, 'Rocky is telling me to make Rocky."

Stallone famously wrote the screenplay for his 1976 breakout movie Rocky, and demanded to star in it despite being an unknown. The story has been turned into a new movie, called I Play Rocky.

Tommy Karate has already been met with negative comments online after photos from the Atlanta set leaked showing Davidson in a wig and blue contacts.

"I wish my f**kin' wig was set, and I wasn't eating in my photos. I promise you it doesn't look like that in the movie," he insisted. "If Tommy Karate is not my coming-out party, then I have zero pulse on this business at all."

He thinks people are going to be "really surprised" when they see the finished film.

"It's all negative. It's so in the toilet and the bar is so low that it makes me even more excited. I hope more people trash it before it comes out because they really have no f**kin' idea what we did. We're really proud of it," he declared.

Tommy Karate is expected to be released in cinemas in autumn 2027.