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Pete Davidson, Keke Palmer and Eddie Murphy star together in Prime Video’s action-comedy The Pickup
For Davidson, working with his “hero” Murphy was a dream come true after being a fan of his since he was a child
“We were like little girls, we could not stop laughing,” Davidson tells PEOPLE
Pete Davidson can’t believe he got to share the screen with his lifelong “hero” Eddie Murphy.
The Saturday Night Live alum, 31, and Beverly Hills Cop actor, 64, star in the action-comedy The Pickup as Travis and Russell, two security guards whose vehicle is hijacked by Zoe (Keke Palmer), a criminal on a mission to avenge her dad by robbing a casino.
Co-leading a movie was a feat of its own for Davidson, who jokes he isn’t normally in a movie for longer than 10 minutes. But working alongside Murphy? A dream come true.
“He’s the f—ing man. He’s Eddie Murphy. There’s only one,” Davidson tells PEOPLE. “I was super geeked, [and I] obviously tried to play it cool.”
Kevin Winter/Getty
Pete Davidson, Keke Palmer and Eddie Murphy attend the World Premiere of Amazon MGM Studios’ “The Pickup” at Regal LA Live on July 27, 2025 in Los Angeles
He describes how the schedule of the movie’s shoot was well thought out by director Tim Story, who had Davidson film scenes with Palmer first, allowing him to settle into Atlanta, where the comedy was filmed.
Then, the first time he acted with Murphy was outside the truck where they filmed the majority of their scenes and the two were surrounded by people, so the time they spent together was “gradual,” Davidson says.
“By the time we got into the truck, we were super tight,” the King of Staten Island actor says. “If I was just in a truck alone with him day one I would’ve probably lost my f—ing mind. But it was gradual and it was eased in.”
He continues, “Then by the time we were in that truck for two to three months, [I was] just screaming. I was just screaming at my hero. But we got on real fast and we had a really, really good time.”
Courtesy Amazon MGM Studios
Pete Davidson, Eddie Murphy, and Keke Palmer in The Pickup
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The duo’s friendship only took off from there, with Palmer, 31, telling PEOPLE they would get “so comfortable with each other” and became so “outlandish” that they’d break character and riff off each other as comedians and friends rather than costars.
“We were like little girls, we could not stop laughing,” Davidson admits. “It’s hard to explain, it was just like everything that I like, he likes. This sounds so embarrassing, but we just love all the same movies and same music, and we would play each other music and do quotes from Jaws.”
Goofing off together wasn’t the only positive to come from their time on set. Davidson says watching how Murphy “moves” taught him valuable life lessons — like reducing his closest circle to just the people he can trust.
“You have to be able to trust who’s around you, and you got to be able to move a certain type of way,” he says. “He has a really small crew, and it’s the same people for a really long time.”
Davidson might be able to count himself among that tight-knit group as their time together turned from a job into a blossoming friendship. And Davidson loved every minute of it. “It was almost like I wrote this fantasy and it came true. It was super crazy,” he says.
The Pickup is now streaming on Prime Video.
Read the original article on People
