The “SNL” alum plays mobster Tommy Pitera in the upcoming crime thriller.

Pete Davidson undergoes another wild hair transformation while filming Tommy Karate

The “SNL” alum plays mobster Tommy Pitera in the upcoming crime thriller.

By Raechal Shewfelt

Raechal Shewfelt

Raechal Shewfelt is a writer at **. She has been working at EW since 2024. Her work has previously appeared on Yahoo and in American *Journalism Review* and *The Shreveport Times*.

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August 27, 2026 5:08 p.m. ET

Pete Davidson before and after his new hairstyle. Credit:

Gonzalo Marroquin/Getty; Jose Perez/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images

- Pete Davidson was spotted with a new hairstyle while filming his movie *Tommy Karate*.

- The *Saturday Night Live* alum is starring in and producing a crime thriller about the life of a mobster.

- Davidson has said before that he finds acting “embarrassing.”

Pete Davidson is taking his role as mobster Tommy Pitera in an upcoming movie very seriously.

While filming the crime thriller based on Pitera’s story, *Tommy Karate*, the *Saturday Night Live* alum sported longer hair than usual and blue contacts in his eyes.

Just last month, Davidson appeared with a cleaner cut, which was still different than his regular style, in a first-look photo for the project. In that one, he also appeared to be wearing facial prosthetics.

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Davidson, who’s best known for his comedy, is currently shooting the film, which is based on Philip Carlo’s 2009 book* The Butcher: Anatomy of a Mafia Psychopath*, in Atlanta. The title,* Tommy Karate*, is a nod to Pitera’s training in martial arts.

His real life counterpart, Pitera, has been incarcerated since 1992, serving a sentence of life in prison. The mob enforcer for the Bonanno crime family was convicted of having overseen a drug operation and murdered six people.

Pete Davidson films ‘Tommy Karate’.

Jose Perez/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images

The actor, who’s also known for his roles in* The King of Staten Island*, *Bodies Bodies Bodies*, and *Fast X* is also producing the movie and co-wrote the script with its director, Justin Chon and Joseph Gay.

Paul Walter Hauser, Camila Mendes, and Simon Rex costar in the story of Pitera’s capture.

It’s a story Davidson has long been passionate about telling.

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He called it “the greatest mob story never told,” in a March statement. “I’ve been working on this for over three years, and I’m beyond thrilled that it’s finally in motion. Playing a role like this is a dream job. We have a great team behind this one, and I can’t wait for people to see what we’ve come up with.”

Davidson has said before that portraying a dramatic role isn’t so easy for him — he called it “so embarrassing.” He’s used to trying for laughs.

But he’s praised the acting skills of someone he knows that didn’t start out as a dramatic actor, either: his ex Kim Kardashian.

“Isn’t it crazy Kim’s good at acting?” he said in May on Netflix’s *The Pete Davidson Show*. “I remember when we were dating, one day she was just like, ‘I think I’m gonna be an actress.’ And I was just like, ‘F--k yeah!’ And then [she’s] just good at it and I’m like, ‘Get the f--k out of here.’ She’s so good at acting.”

Maybe she’ll have a cameo?

No official release date for *Tommy Karate* has been announced.

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